EARLY DUTCTI BTJILDING (1698) SUCHAS
OUR
WAS USEDBY CHEYICAL ISDUSTRIESBEFORE 1700 (VALENT I N E ’ ~> \ . ~ A N U A L .1847)
CHEMICAL HERITAGE C. A. BROW‘XE Bureau of Chemistry and Soils, Washington, D. C.
The Story of Chemistry in Old New York
T
HE colonial beginnings of our domestic chemical industries were widely scattered and wholly disconnected. The origins in Virginia (1607), Massachusetts (1620), S e w York (1624), Maryland (1634), Pennsylnnia (1682), and the other Atlantic colonies were unrelated, each colony developing in almost complete isolation. d study of our chemical origins in each of the American colonies is obviously too vast a subject to be compressed within the limits of a single paper and so we are obliged t o confine our attention to a single area. The story of our chemical origins upon the island of Manhattan is, in a measure, typical of what happened in many of the S o r t h American colonies.
the newly appointed director-general of Sew Xetherland, made his famous purchase of Manhattan Island from the Indians for 60 guilders (324.00). Minuit proceeded to concentrate his colonists a t the lower end of this island in a little village, which, in memory of the old parent city, was called “Sew Amsterdam.” The first letter from S e w Amsterdam, of which there is an authentic copy, was written to the directors of the West India Company on September 23, 1626, by their chief commercial agent, Isaack de RasiBre. I n this letter Rasihre refers to certain chemical industrial possibilities of the new colony in the following words (10BH):
Chemical Industries of Colonial Xew A m s t e r d a m Although Verrazzano in 1524 and Hudson in 1609 had both entered, in their respective voyages, the Upper Bay of Kew York, no settlements were made in this region by Europeans until about 1624. The efforts of the Dutch West India Company to found a colony a t the mouth of the Hudson did not take definite form until 1626 when Peter Minuit,
As to the making of salt I fear that this will not be successful because it sometimes rains here in summer, but with God’s help we shall try it at the proper season and see whether it is feasible. As far as the burning of lime is concerned, that can certainly be done, and making bricks, too, for there is clay enough here that could be used for brick-making and there are plenty of oyster-shells that are suitable for making lime; only we lack workmen who understand the burning and brickmaking.
FRESHWATEROR COLLECT PONDAS IT WAS BEFORE THE REVOLUTION WITH VARIOUS SMALL CHEMICAL INDIJSTRIES ON ITS SHORES (FROM VALENTINE’S MANUAL, 1860) 501
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Let us glance for a moment a t some of the primitive chemical industries of the little town of Kew Amsterdam (10A) as it vas about 1660 in the time of the poet, Jacob Steendam. I. 3. Phelps Stokes has kindly permitted us to reproduce the R e d r a f t of t h e Castello Plan of Xew hnisterdani in 1660 (page 502) w h i c h is t h e frontispiece of Volume I1 of his “IcoAll minerals newly nography.” where defound, or yet to be tailed descriptions of d i s c o v e r e d mines of every location on this gold, silver, copper, or plan are given (10A). any other m e t a l , as well as of p r e c i o u s The northern limit s t o n e s such as diaof the settlement was monds, rubies and the a wooden p a l i s a d e like, t o g e t h e r with along the present line pearl fisheries, shall be worked and exploited of Wall Street, exexclusively by t h e tending from the servants of the ComHudson to the East pany. River: below was a village of some 350 This belief in the houses with a popuexistence of undislation of about 1500 covered deposits of souls. Broad Street, u n l i m i t e d mineral or Heere Gracht as i t wealth in S e w Xethwas then called, was erland persisted for SKETCH OF FIRST STONEWARE FURNACE IN NEW YORK, 1730 occupied as far as Exm a n y year.. The (FROM VALENTIhE’S hIAKTJ.4L, 1854) change Place (Heere local D u t c h poet -~ dwars Sfraet) by a Jacob Steendam (S), canal. like those of writing in 1661, thus old Amsterdam, on which boats discharied and loaded depicted the chemical resources of the new colony: their cargoes. On the west side of the Heere Gracht just Quik-silver, Goud, en Pot-loot, en Kristal above the site of the present corner of Exchange Place Vol-aarde, en Pot-aarde. ’t Is ’er al, Wat oyt vernuft (met konst) bedenken sal; and Broad Street stood the brewhouse and distillery of Of kan versinnen. Reynier \ran der Coele (10B). Here he fermentcbd niolasse. and made rum in his “still kittels” until he finally failed (Quicksilver, gold, black lead and crystal, because he was unable to pay Balthazar de Haert the 2664 $uller’s earth and potter’s earth; everyth,ng is there, Whatever genius with art shall invent guilders which he owed him for stock and equipment. Or cnn contrive.)’ Kot far away on Heere Gracht (where now is 54-60 Broad Street) Conr&et ten Eyck (lac), the tanner and master I t was not in the exploitation of poetic dreams of quickshoemaker, had his bark sheds and tan pits, for a t that qilver, or gold, or crystal gems that the first chemical activitime a man could unite the occupations of tanner, leather ties of the new colony n-ere to develop but in the production merchant, and shoemaker-a combination which v a s later of such commonplace articles as leather, beer, distilled liquors, forbidden as the various trades became more spccializcd. On tile and brick, 11-hale oil, stoneware, sugar, and the other -1farkaelt Steeg (now 11-13 Stone Street), Oloff Stevensen van numerous needs of everyday life. The first building to be Cortlandt (10D) had his large brewery. I n 1636 Oloff reerected by the T e s t India Company (in 1626) was a storefused to permit the excise officer, Paulus van der Beeck, to house on the Tvater front of the lower end of the island, near inspect his brewery and was consequently fined 125 florins the present corner of Whitehall and Pearl Streets. I n this with an extra 8-florin penalty for contempt of court. HenStructure hides, skins, and furs, obtained in traflic with the drick Killemsen (IOE), the baker and bread inspector, a Indians, and sugar, molasses, dyewoods, and other products, most influential citizen, had his place on Tt’inckel Strnet (now obtained from the tropics, were stored for shipment to Hol15-25 Khitehall). Xear him was the home of Karnaer land. The conversion of some of these stores into articles Wessels (fOF),the brener and distiller. Dr. Hans Kierstede for local use was a natural del-elopment. (IUG). the nhvsician and anothecarr. I.. ” , held forth a t what is 1 Steendam in his poem seems only to hare versified statements in the nom ’23-25 Pearl Street. He first compounded the famous “Remonstrance to the Lords States General of the United Netherlands by I(ierstede ointment, a centuries-old family secret transmitted the People of New Netherland” (July 28, 1649) in which quicksilver, gold, through many generations Of descendants and ‘Old in “” silver, copper, iron, black lead, fuller’s earth, clay of all colors, mountain York even a t the present time. At what is now 47-51 Beaver crystal, alum, etc., are enumerated among the mineral riches of N~~ Netherland. Pee “Documentary History oi New York.” Vol. I. page 280. Street, Joannes Verveelen (10H) had his famous Red Lion
The European merc a n t i l e and trading companies, when they founded settlements in North A m e r i c a , had among other objectives the exploitation of imaginary dep o s i t s of m i n e r a l wealth. The Dutch West India Company (IOM), for example, made in 1624 the following reservation with respect to the natural resources of Kew Netherland:
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Brewery (de Brouwerije van de Roode Leeuw) later conducted h u e d their former habits; they still spoke Dutch and paid by his son Daniel. Daniel, like Oloff Stevensen van Corttheir debts in guilders instead of in shillings. Buildings landt, fell into difficulties with the excise officer when he continued to be erected with stepped gables in the old Dutch shipped to his father, who had moved to Harlem, two halfstyle. This was the type of chemical factory as i t existed in barrels of strong beer without paying the tax. He was fined New York down to 1700. I n such a structure as this the 220 guilders, of which the city received 100, the sheriff 100, soapmaker or dyer or brewer had both residence and factory and the informer 20. On the site of the present 16-26 South under a single roof, a oractice that was attended with danger, William Street lived Evert for on more than one occaDuyckingh (IOI), the glasssion a family mas extermimaker. H e and his son, n a t e d b y a conflagration Gerrit, understood the art of which spread into the sleeppainting glass and of fixing ing quarters from the adjointhe colors by firing them in ing work rooms. As trade a furnace. They emblazoned increased and the town grew beautiful windows of colored in size and compactness, the glass for churches and the little tanneries, breweries, and homes of well-to-do citizens. other establishments which They were termed “glaziers,” generated o b j e c t i o n a b l e and hence the street on which smells were pushed farther they lived was s o m e t i m e s out into the suburbs. The called Glazier’s Street, inl e a t h e r - m a k e r s with their stead of the common name bark piles and odorous tan Slyck Steegh (Muddy Lane). pits congregated in a negOn what is now the Beaver lected district known as Street side of the Delmonico “Beekman’s Swamp,” a secB u i l d i n g , Michiel Jansen tion which became in later (lOJ) had a b r e w h o u s e . years the great leather marAnother brewhouse, belongket of the city. F a r t h e r ing to Jacob W o l p h e r t s e n north, on the present site of van C o u n e n h o v e n (IOK), the Tombs or city prison stood on the present southwas a large pond ( l a ) , where west corner of Morris Street the boys skated in winter, and Broadway. Near the called the Versch Water or LIVINGSTON’S SUGARHOUSEIN THE DAYS present corner of William Kolch and afterwards known OF THE REVOLUTION !vHEX I T W A S and Beaver Streets stood the in English as the “Fresh USEDAS A PRISON a t i l l h o u s e and smithy of Water” or “Collect.” This (From an Etching by Charles B. Hall) pond was shown on all maps Burger Jorissen (10~5). of Kew York until 1803, These citations from the old Dutch records of New Amsterdam are sufficient to give when it was filled. The city’s powder magazine, for reasons a glimpse of a few chemical origins in what is now the great of safety, was placed on a small island (later made a peninfinancial district of lower New York. The legal and regulasula) in the Collect, while around its shores a large number of tory difficulties, with which some of the infant industries had little chemical industries sprang up, such as tanneries, brewto contend, have a very modern aspect. These early chemieries, starch factories, tar houses, furnaces, and potteries, cal establishments were more in the nature of household all drawing upon the pond for their water supplies. enterprises than factories and, although exceedingly modest I n the course of time the little family industries, in which as regards size and equipment, were closely interwoven ivith husband, wife, and children worked together, began to give the life of the people. way to establishments of a larger size which were devoted exclusively t o manufacturing. Significant in this connection John Winthrop, Jr., our first American chemist, made is an announcement in the N e w York Gazette for August 17, various visits to Xew Amsterdam in his official capacity as 1730, which states that Nicholas Bayard (108) has erected a governor of Connecticut and no doubt visited some of the sugar refinery for making “double and single Refine Loafsmall chemical industries which have been described. The Sugar, as also Powder and Shop-Sugars and Sugar-Candy town as he saw it is identical with that shown upon the which he supplies a t wholesale and retail, having procured Castello Plan. Winthrop, as a close personal friend of Difrom Europe an experienced artist in that mystery.” This rector-General Peter Stuyvesant of Yew hmsterdam, played refinery stood on the north side of Wall Street, betlveen the leading part in the diplomatic negotiations which led to William and Xassau, and its owner thus became the first of the peaceful surrender of the town to the English-an event that long line of merchants and refiners who in later years which he described to his friend Sir Robert Moray (a fellow made Wall Street the sugar center of the world. (Bayard’s member of the Royal Society) in a Ietter written from Hartsugar house was demolished about the time of the Revolution.) ford on September 20, 1664: The sugar refiners of Amsterdam at this time excelled those I sawe them possessed of the Fort and towne upon Manatos of all other European cities both in skill and excellency of Island, w& was surrendered to his Ma% obedience on Monday products, and the “experienced artist” whom Nicholas Baythe 28@ of August last, by peacable agreement upon articles, without occasion of one drop of blood The fort is now called ard procured from abroad was in all probability a native of Jeames Fort and the towne New Yorke. Holland. The Cuylers, Rhinelanders, van Cortlandts, Crugers, Roosevelts, and other families who took up sugar Chemical Industries of Colonial New York refining in New York after its inception by Bayard were mostly of Dutch origin. Their workmen were of the same Following the English conquest of h-ew Amsterdam in extraction and the methods of sugar refining were the same 1664 and the change in name to New York, life went on for a as employed in Holland. time in very much the same way. The old inhabitants con-
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dustry soon became Not far from Bayone of leading imporard’s refinery was the tance. In 1730 the sugarhouse of Peter first stoneware kiln Livingston ( I O W ) (1OR) or furnace to be erected in 1754 on built in the American the present site of colonies was erected 28-36 Liberty Street, in Kew York near the between William and Collect pond, not far Nassau on the south from the present corside; it was demolner of C e n t e r and ished in 1840. The Reade Streets. A sugarhouse of John glass factory (1OY) van Cortlandt ( I O X ) was erected in 1758 was e r e c t e d about on the Korth River, the s a m e t i m e as a t Bloomingdale, near Livingston’s, a t the the present intersecnorthwest corner of tion of 35th Street Trinity Churchyard. OLD BREWERY .4T FIVEPOIXTS and Eleventh AveThis r e f i n e r y was ( m o VALENTINE’S ~ MANUAL, 1853) nue, but the bu,’ciness g u t t e d by fire in was discontinued a Sovember, 1769, but was restored and stood as a familiar landmark until 1852 when few years later. The New Tork Air Furnace (28) which began operations in 1767 had its foundry on t,he North it was demolished. In 1769 a sugarhouse was built by Henry River near the present corner of Greenwich and Beach Cuyler, Jr. (IOAF), on the corner of the present Rose and Streets. In 1768 the New York Paper hlanufactory (IOAE) Duane Streets. It was bought later by William Rhinelander and was known thereafter as the Rhinelander sugarhouse. (John Keating’s Paper Mill) commenced operations between Maiden Lane and Burling Slip. Loosley and Elms ( I O A M ) I t survived the longest of the old New York sugar refinery buildings, having been demolished only in 1892. These were also making paper in New York before the Revolution. old pre-Revolutionary sugarhouses were massive five- and I n 1774 Hunter and Walsh (IOAH) erected a soap and caniix-story stone buildings with tile-covered roofs. They dle factory on Broad Street. Tile, brick, naval stores, linseed marked the intermediary stage between the little home facoil, chocolate, lampblack, glue, starch, lime, soap, paint, tories of the seventeenth century and the immense modern pewter- and silverware, and many other chemical commodichemical plants which came into existence in the nineteenth ties had also begun to be manufactured in New York before century. the Revolution. Some of the early chemical establishments of New York mere the cause of serious conflagrations. BeBn interesting account has been given by Barrett ( I ) of one of the local sugar refiners during the time just after the Revocause of the danger of fire, the Common Council passed an lution. This was Isaac Roosevelt, great-great-grandfather act ( I O Z ) in December, 1761, requiring that “no pitch, Tarr, of President Franklin Roosevelt, whose house was situated Turpentine or Shingles shall or may be put in any place to on what is now Franklin Square and whose refinery stood the Southward of the Fresh Water.” where Cliff Street now runs. According t o Barrett, Isaac Just prior to the Revolution there were six or more brewRoosevelt, an active old gentleman, would get an early eries in New York. Some of these were well-equipped esbreakfast and then run into the sugarhouse behind his resitablishments. Rivington’s Gazetteer for December 1, 1774, dence where he would plan the day’s operations with his son, contains a notice of the auction sale of Harrison’s brewery the junior partner of the firm. At 10 o’clock the senior Roose(IOAI) on the North River near the present corner of Harrivelt would then cross the street t o the Bank of Kew York, of son and Greenwich Streets. The property is described as which he was president, and there spend the remainder of the consisting of “I. A large well-built Brick Brew House, clay. allowed by all competent judges to be the most commodious Before and during and complete of any the period when the in America. 11. A Om SHOTTOWER,EASTRIVER Kew York sugar relarge B r i c k M a l t (FROM VALENTINE’SMANUAL, 1860) fineries arose, a large house with two cisn u m b e r of o t h e r terns. 111. An exchemical industries cellent H o r s e Mill began operation on with a sizeable pair M a n h a t t a n Island. of Iron Rollers. IV. Dyers became busy A very large and cawith their infusions pacious Brick Vault of indigo, logwood, which adjoins to and redwood, etc., and the has a Communication alum and c o p p e r a s with the Brew house which they used for cellar. V. A large mordanting. Before storehouse e r e c t e d 1700, oil began to be cn-er the vault.” A p r e p a r e d from the cooper’s shop, three blubber of stranded dwellings, a stable, whales (IO-O), for piers, etc., made up burning in lamps and the remainder of t h ( other purpwes, and property. the local whale oil in-
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LOCATION OF VARIOUS CHEMICAL IILDUSTRIES IN NEWYORKJUST BEFORE AND AFTER THE REVOLUTION (IN THE PERIOD 1750-1800) AS SHOWN ON A Map OF THE YEAR 1782
1. 2.
3. 4. 5. 6.
7. 8.
9. 10. 11. 12.
Bayard's sugarhouse Livingston's sugarhouse Van Cortlandt's sugarhouse. Rhinelander's sugarhonse. Isaac Roosevelt's sugarhouse. Griswold's sugarhouse. Vatar's stillhouse. The three stillhouses of Gri5th, of John Burling, and of James Burling were located close together here. Leake's stillhouse. Blagge's stillhouse. Brewery. Benson's brewery.
13.
A. Rutger's brewery.
14.
Coulthard's brewery. One-half mile east was Henry Rutger'e brewery. Three blocks north on the river front was Harrison's brewery: eleven blocks north near the river front was Lispenard's brewery; six blocks north on the river front was the foundry of the New York Air Furnace. Tan yards. T a n yards. Arcularius' tannery. Brooks's tannery and leather factory
15. 16.
17. 18. 19. 20.
Tan yards. Coraelius' pottery. Kemmey and Crolius' pottery. Wilson's pottery. Powder magazine. Starch factory. Tar houses of Rope Walk. Linseed oil factory with windmill New York Paper Factory. 30. Laboratory. 31. Delacroix' confectionery factory. 32. King's College. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29.
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A t t i t u d e of Great Britain towards Colonial American Industries The attitude of Great Britain towards the development of chemical industries in S e w York and the other American colonies was antagonistic. It is well summed up in the statement of the first Lord Sheffield that “the only use and advantage of American colonies, or West India islands, is the monopoly of their consumption and the carriage of their produce” (11). The manufacture of raTy chemical p r o d u c t s , such a5 naval stores and potash, that were needed for English indust r i e s was e n c o u r a g e d b y bounties and favorable legislation, but severe p e n a l t i e s were inflicted by Parliament upon the erection of rolling and slitting mills and of other establishments that manufactured finished products. The emigration of skilled workmen for employment in c o l o n i a l industries was forbidden under penalty of fines and imprieonment although this restriction was difficult to enforce and s o m e t i m e s openly violated. This is indicated in the announcement of Xcholas Bayard in 1730 that he had “procured from Europe an experienced artist” in the niystery of sugar refining. For over a century after the coming of Nicholas Bayard’s experienced artist, there was a continual influx from Europe of skilled workmen who played a great part both before and after the Revolution in helping to establish and promote chemical industries in the Xew World. The great fundamental difficulty between Great Britain and the American colonies was whether the latter should send their raw materials to England to be manufactured into the finished products which they needed, or whether the colonies should save themselves from this exploitation by utilizing their own natural resources. The various towns in the colonies encouraged the establishment of iron furnaces, tanneries, and other industries by grants of land, by monopolies, by freedom from taxes, by exemption of workmen from military duty, and by privileges of stock subscription. The mother country, on the other hand, by the passage of Navigation Acts ( I S ) , Sugar Acts, and other restrictive measures did everything possible to curtail the development of colonial commerce and industry. Lord Chatham even asserted that the colonies had not the right to manufacture a nail for a horseshoe. As a result of these acts of repression, the Ken7 York mer-
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chants drew up various protepts (fOL4A) and memorials for forwarding to Parliament and, when these were ineffective, organized a “Society for the Promotion of Arts, Agriculture and Economy in the Province of Xew York” (IOdB) which encouraged domestic manufactures by the offer of premiums. K h e n the obnoxious Stamp Act was passed by Parliament, a congress of twenty-eight delegates from nine of the colonies met a t the City Hall in New York in October, 1765, and protested against taxation without representation (10-4C). When this protest was ignored, the feeling of industrial independence which had been constantly growing began to assert itself more s t r o n g l y . T h e colonists voted in retalia t’ion (1OAD) to import from Great Britain no more refined sugar, leather, starch, linseed oil, glue, glass, metalware, paper, dyed goods, or any other product which they could manufacture for themselves. A glimpse of the growing sentiment is contained in an advertisement of the Kew York Air Furnace (1OAG) in the New York Mercury for February 22, 1773, where the owners announce the rebuilding of their foundry “in a more compleater manner than before it was burnt down” and “flatter themselves that the friends of America will encourage them by preferring goods manufactured in their own country, especially when they are as good and sold as cheap as they can be imported from Europe.” A similar spirit prevailed in all the colonies. The final inevitable outcome of the whole matter was the comm e n c e m e n t of the Revolutionary War at Lexington on April 19, 1775. Following the first outbreak of hostilities there was an immediate stock-taking by the colonists of the means for resisting the foreign i n v a d e r . An inventory in New York of the amount of lead available for making shot and bullets showed that 600 tons of this metal (IOAJ) could be procured in and about the city in Xay, 1775. I n March, 1776, Congress (IOdL) ordered the leads to be removed from the windows of the City Hall and Exchange in Kew York. I n January, 1776, the S e w York Commiitee of Safety (IOAK), following a resolution of the Continental Congress of July 28, 1775, published a pamphlet entitled “Essays upon the Making of Saltpetre and Gunpowder” which was given a wide circulation. A munitions building, called the “Laboratory,” was fitted u p near Fort George a t the Battery, on the corner of Pearl and State Streets. Solomon S a s h (10AN) in his diary for
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After Washington’s inauguration as President in Federal 1776 relates that on May 13 he was “piling up shot a t the Hall on Wall Street on April 30, 1789, the First Congress asLabatery” and on July 13 he was “employed a t the Labesembled there passed an act which was of momentous imterry.” Another diarist, Jaben Bitch (IOAO), records that Dortance to the future of American chemical industry. This on October 28, 1776, just after the British o c c u r d o n of New was e n t i t l e d , “An Act to York, “the Liberty Pole a t promote the Progress of useye Labetory was this mornful Arts.” It was the first PETER T. CURTENIUS, and Co. ing taken down.” The exact H A V E repaired the New-York Air-Furnace, and have procured act relating to the granting purpose of t h i s s o - c a l l e d the best Workmen, together with the necessary Apparatus to of patents and was signed in Laboratory, which gave so carry on the Manufacture of Cast-Iron, in the completest and Kew York by Washington much difficulty in spelling, best Manner, so that the Ware they make will be equal to any (10AV) on April 10, 1790. imported from Europe, and the Price less. does n o t appear in t h e The first patent to be issued records. It was probably inThe W A R E manufactured at this Furnace, consists of the following under this new act was for a tended as a place of inspecArticles, viz. c h e m i c a l process. It was tion, where locally made powPats and Kettles of various sizes from one to .@teen allons, granted on July 31, 1790, t o der, fuses, projectiles, and Tea Kettles, Pye Pans, Skillets, Griddles, Pot-Ash Kett fes and Samuel Hopkins for “a new Coolers, Whaling Kettles, Boilers for Tallow-Chandlers and Sugarother military supplies were Works, Stoves for Sugar-Bakers, Mill-Cases, Cast Bars fpr Sugarmethod of making pot and examined before use by the Works and Distilleries, Rollers and Shears for Slattang-Malls, pearl ashes.” colonial troops. Hearth and Jamb Plates cast agreeable to any pattern, Close The First Congress, during The o c c u p a t i o n of New Stoves for Work-shops, hranklin Stoves neatly decorated with its session in New York, decarved work, Bath Scove-Grates elegantly ornamented with carvings, York by the B r i t i s h army Chimney Backs, Ships Cabouses of the new construction, with voted much attention to fosfrom September 15, 1776, to bake ovens, in which the same fire that roasts and boils the meat tering the infant industries of the evacuation on November bakes the bread, Mill Rounds and Gudgeons, Saw-Mill Cranks, the United States, and on 25, 1783, r e s u l t e d in the Calcining Plates for making Pearl Ashes, Cast Iron Screns for January 15, 1790, the House complete p a r a l y s i s of t h e Fulling and Paper Mills, Fullers Plates cast to any size, Sash Weights, Forge Hammers and Anvils, Plow Plates, Half Hundreds, numerous chemical industries of Representatives issued an Quarters, Fourteen and Seven Pound Weights; Cart, Waggon, which were then in existence. order to the first Secretary of Coach, Phaeton, Chair and Sulky Boxes, &c. &c. &c.Also, Some of the plants were emthe Treasury, A l e x a n d e r Bells for Churches, made of the best Bell Metal, from jijty to one ployed for military purposes. Hamilton, to prepare a rethousand weight. N . B. Persons who want any Backs or other Ware, cast Lispenard’s brewery (1OAS) port upon “the subject of agreeable to particular Patterns, will please to send their Patterns near the Korth River (on the manufactures and particuto the FURNACE, near M r . Atlee’s Brewery, North-River, or leave present south side of Watts larly the means of promoting them at the House of Peter T. Curtenius, No. 48 Great Dock-Street, Street between G r e e n w i c h such as will tend to render t h e near the Exchange. and Canal) was converted United States independent of into a barrack for British foreign ” nations for militarv troops, and Rutger’s brewery (1OAR) on the East River (near and other essential supplies.” Hamilton, a citizen of New the present corner of Clinton and Henry Streets) was changed York, had already devoted much attention to this subject, into a storehouse for pitch, tar, rosin, turpentine, and other and his report, submitted to the House on December 5 , 1791, naval supplies. The Livingston sugarhouse (10AQ)on Liberty is one of the most important publications in the history of Street was converted into a prison for confining captured our chemical industries. His essay might almost be termed soldiers of the Continental Army. The sufferings endured our “Declaration of Chemical Industrial Independence.’’ Its by the patriots in this sugarhouse prison are indescribable. prophetic character and unanswerable logic make it a public Prisoners of all classes were crowded in far beyond the capacity document for all time and one which will repay careful study, of the building, and there were no Drovisions for segregating the sick. One observer wrote that he saw every &:ow in the walls “filled with human heads, face above face, seeking a portion of the external air.” I n July, 1777, jail fever broke out and great numbers of the prisoners died. Other sugarhouses (IOAP) in New York were also convertedinto prisons. I ,
Growth of Chemical Industries after the Revolution Several destructive fires occurred in New York during the British occupation, and after peace was declared in 1783 the first efforts of the evacuated city were devoted to the work of reconstruction. New industries began to appear and older establishments commenced to expand. In December, 1784, Emery and Newman (1OAT) announced their intention to build a factory for making shot, pumps, pipe, and other equipment of lead on the Dock near the Fly-market. This was the beginning of the erection of the numerous shot factories whose towers were a distinguishing feature of the skyline of old New York a century ago. The American manufacturer of l?IE T ~ 1789- ~ chemical equipment for domestic industries now 95, FOUNDER OF THE N A T I 0 N *L p 0 L I c y appeared upon the scene for the first time. Peter T. Curtenius and Company of the New York Air F ~ ~ ~ Furnace, for example, advertised in a broadside A ~ cHEMICAL ~ , in 1787 as printed in italics above. INDUSTRIES
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warning of Hamilton has unfortunately been too frequently even at the present day. Hamilton’s discussion of such chemical industries as those of potash, pitch, tar, turpentine, ignored. animal and regetable oils, soap, spermaceti, starch, malt and Effects of the War of 1812 distilled liquors, sugar, chocolate, paper, leather, glue, paints, lead, copper, iron, steel, glass, and gunpowder, and his arguIf the right of Americans to do their own manufacturing was one of the leading causes of the Revolution, the right to ments upon the importance of protecting many of these by means of bounties, premiums, and protective duties made a carry their manufactured products to other nations without hindrance was one of the chief motives which inwide ameal. His reDort. , which was printed by spired the war of 1812, During the Napoleonic order of the House of Representatives, mas given ars between 1806 and 1812, the position of a wide circulation and was republished again the United States greatly resembled that and again. Largely as a result of Hamilin the recent European War between 1914 ton’s recommendations, the different states began to award bounties and to grant and 1917. Our manufacturers were first stimulated to supply the needs of exemptions for starting glass and other chemical manufactures. Prizes vere foreign contestants. The start, thus awarded by the numerous societies acquired, received an immediate impetus in 18G6 by the passage of that had been formed to stimulate domestic p r o d u c t i o n . Industry an embargo upon the importation grew. commerce i n c r e a s e d , and of British goods and was still further intensified between 1812 and American ships began to appear on 1814 when the United States beevery ocean. came involved in a conflict with Hamilton’s report was most timely, Great Britain owing to interferences for it came a t a period when our with American commerce. chemical industries were just beginThe Gnited States in the thirty-year ning to emerge from the restricted coloperiod following the Revolution had made nial stage into one of broader, independent existence. Men were debating little progress in modernizing its military equipments and was not in a position to cope whether the true interests of the young with the well-provided armies of Great Britain. republic should not be confined exclusively to Xew York, having suffered more than agriculture, and their doubts were inHENRY CLAY, SECRETARY OF STATE1825-29, other A m e r i c a n cities during the creased by floods of seductive propaRevolution and having been exposed ganda introduced from abroad and ~ ~ ~ s ~ $ s ~ ~ U ~ ~ c ~ ~ ~ $ fromchostile attacks, to greatest risks circulated a t home by the adherents DmPIv.G OF F~~~~~~G~~~~ IN hhlERICAN was naturally the most active in imof a false system of national economy. MARKETS proving its means of defense. The Thii wa3 t h e doctrine that the desold Laboratory a t Battery Place wm restored, and it was tiny of the United States was to be exclusively agricultural and perhaps here that America’s first engineer, the versatile (201. that its future welfare depended upon the free exchange of its John Stevens, a graduate of King’s College and a patriot cotton, grain, and other produce for the manufactured goods of the Revolution, began his experiments upon munitions, of Great Britain. This was nothing more or less than a sugfor we read in the records of the Common Council, for gestion, under the guise of national welfare, that the United June 29 and July 23, 1798, that a city watchman was orStates return to its old status of a colonial dependency. Indered to guard “Col. Stevens’ Labaratory” at the Battery deed as late as 1843, or sixty years after the close of the Revo(IOAX). Stevens took a leading part as inventor, engineer, lution, the London Spectator (1I d ) made this announcement and promoter, in securing the passage of our first patent law, with reference to the trade betx-een the United States and in hastening the introduction of steamboats and railways, Great Britain: and in improving New York’s water supply, sewage system, streets, docks, fortifications, and other municipal properties. Nore general considerations tend to show that the trade In the field of munitions he is best known for his invention between the two countries, most beneficial to both, must be what is called a colonial trade; the new-settled country imof the elongated explosive shell which was tried out successporting the manufactures of the old in exchange for its raw fully in 1814 towards the close of the War of 1812 (12). produce. In all economical relations the United States After the downfall of Napoleon and the declaration of will stand t o Zngland in the relations of color~yt o mother peace between the United States and Great Britain, the latter country. nation, with its thousands of discharged soldier5 returning to the fields of industry, set out to recover its lost markets. The resistance which it, opposed to such propaganda was Great Britain, by the early adoption of the steam engine and one of the great seryices of Hamilton’s report of‘ 1791. I n it labor-saving machinery, had a t least a twenty-gear start two great truths were promulgated : over other nations in the contest for industrial supremacy. She had not only the skilled labor and the shipping, but she The trade of a country which is both manufacturing and could turn out products in such quantities and a t such low agricultural will be more lucrative and prosperous than that of a country which is merely agricultural. prices that competition was impossible. Great Britain was The extreme embarrassments of the United States during the even ready to export products a t a loss. Lord Brougham late war, from an incapacity of supplying themselves, are stili a (11, 11.4) in a speech before Parliament in 1816, declared matter of keen recollection: a future Tar might be expected ‘(Itis well worth while to incur a loss upon the first exportaagain t o exemplify the mischiefs and dangers of B situat,ion, t o which that incapacity is still in too great a degree applicable, tion, in order by the glut to stifle in the cradle those rising unless changed by timely and vigorous exertion. To effect this manufactures in the United State-i, which the war has forced change, as fast as shall be prudent, merits all the attention and into existence contrary to the natural course of things.” Brit-, all the zeal of our public councils; it is the next great work to be ish products were shipped to S e w York for immediate sale accomplished. a t auction, and, before antidumping laws could be passed, ar Since the time when it vias proclaimed, this prophetic almost irretrievable damage had been inflicted upon AmeriA
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can manufactures. This condition, however, was remedied in 1824 by the passage of the first effective tariff law, and from this time dates the well-known American System of Henry Clay, who deserves to be called the “savior of our chemical industries. ” It is interesting to trace the development of the chemical
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tion (3) held in S e w York on October 26, 1831. It is significant that this first general meeting of American chemists was industrial and economic in character. Although their report refers solely to the War of 1812 and its after-effects, its statements are applicable almost word for word to the World War of 1914-18 and the subsequent period. It constituted
FARMHOUSEOF RAPEWE,OR “GLASS HOUSE” PROPERTY, ON THE SITE OF 35TH
STREET 4T THE N O R T H
RIVER,
AFTERWARDSF 4 C T O R Y O F THE iL’EW YORK C H E M I C A LMANUFACTURING COMPANY~n 1824 (FROM VALENTINE’S MANUAL. 1866)
industries which sprang into existence in the United States as results of the embargo of 1806 and of the War of 1812. Their development is reflected in the character of the chemical patents. Previous t o 1806 these patents related chiefly to t h e old colonial industries of distilling, salt manufacture, potash making, and the utilization of sperm oil and other fats for soap and candles. B u t after 1806, when the importation of foreign goods was restricted, the inventive genius of American chemists began to be diverted into more modern channels. Between 1806 and 1814 there are noted for the first time inventions that relate to subliming sulfur, dyeing silks and calicoes, bleaching, refining camphor, waterproofing leather, making artificial mineral water, and manufacturing sulfuric acid, copper acetate, magnesia, and white and red lead. It was in this period that the manufacture of chemicals underwent a vast expansion in the larger cities of the United States. The New York Chemical Manufacturing Company (4),for example, obtained a charter in 1823 to make blue vitriol, alum, oil of vitriol, nitric and muriatic acids, saltpeter, borax, copperas, corrosive sublimate and calomel, paints and dyers’ colors, as well as certain organic chemicals such as alcohol, refined camphor, tartar emetic, and various drugs and medicines. Their factory in Greenwich Tillage, on the site of the present southwest corner of Hudson and Gansevoort Streets, was shortly afterwards moved to the old “Glass House” or Rapelje farm property which the company had acquired on the North River near the present 35th Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues. The New York Chemical Manufacturing Company, like the Manhattan Company, had banking pririleges in its amended charter and on August 2, 1824, opened the present Chemical Bank (4) a t 216 Broadway. The name of this bank still survives as a reminder of its early chemical industrial affiliations.
New York Chemical Convention of 1831 and the Beginning of the Modern Era The lessons of the first great battle to preserve our chemical industries, which was won by the adoption of the American System of Henry Clay in 1824, were summarized for all future time in a report of chemists who met a t an industrial conven-
a complete vindication of the warnings contained in the 1791 report of Alexander Hamilton. The following few paragraphs from the report of the S e w York Convention are quoted in this connection:
Intimately connected with science and the healing art, and essential to other manufactures, chemistry received very little or no attention from the enterprise and skill of our country, until the late war. That event suddenly cut off the usual supplies from foreign countries. The consequent advance in price was excessive, and the inconvenience sustained by that class of manufacturers who consumed chemicals, incalculable. This state of things gave the first impulse to chemistry in our country. The return of peace, however, brought foreign competition which soon threatened to extinguish t’he infant and yet inexperienced establishments which had crept into existence during the x i r . The large importations which, at that period, inundated the country, caused a reduction in prices, alike ruinous to the import,er and his competitor, the American manufacturer. This depression, however, would have been but temporary, had there been no interference on the part of the government. The foreigner would have prevailed in the contest-and the market becoming his, the prices would have been in accordance with his own remorseless interests. Happily for the nation, and more particularly for that numerous laboring class who are dependent on chemical manipulations-and the agriculturists, who find in this class a customer instead of a rival-happily also for the other classes of manufacturers who owe their existence to chemistry, the tariff act of 1824 placed the seal upon the policy of the nation. By this act, and not until after its passage, was the manufacture of chemicals established in the United States. Until it became the policy of the nation t o encourage a domestic supply of chemicals, prices were constantly fluctuatingwere generally high and oftentimes seized upon for purposes of speculation, to the great injury of consumers. Domestic competition has caused prices to settle at a minimum rate. The manufacturer is now so near the consumer that his wants are anticipated and scarcity is unknown-because the raw material, being unlimited in quantity, and individual enterprise commensurate with it, the demand is seldom allowed to overtake the fiupply. The large consumption caused by the growing wants of our country, if dependent on the laboratories of Europe, would have either enhanced prices or have justified the maintenance of former rates-for, until the business n-as undertaken in this country, the foreign manufacturers seem not to have discovered lion. cheaply they could work. This report of the S e w York Convention a century ago
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demics which broke out in colonial times were wrongly attributed to the foul odors generated by some of the chemical industries. Tan pits ( I O S ) , because of‘ their stench, had been banished from the lower part of the city as far back as 1676. The distilling of rum and the burning of lime were prohibited ( I O Q ) in 1703 within the city because of the belief that these industries contributed to the fatal distemper which prevailed the previous summer. I n 1744 pits of standing water used by tanners and leather dressers mere required to be filled and Early Chemical Deuelopments in -1fedicine and “no dye of hatters or other dyers or Corrupted Noisom Public F e l f a r e K a t e r of Starch makers shall be poured or suffered to run into the channels of the streets of this city either by night or I n Kew York, as in Boston and other coloniai cities, chemisby day” ( I O U ) . Similar regulations to prevent the spread try passed through it. preliminary alchemical and iatrochemiof infectious diseases were passed in 1 i 9 7 against glue makers, cal phases. Concerning early New York adepts, there is a soap boilers, tallow chandlers, grain fermenters, and other tradition preserved in the diaries of President Ezra Stiles of Yale College of an old German chemist, Dr. Benson ( 8 ) ,~ h o manufactures “which produce impure air or offensive smells” (IOAW). in the early part of the eighteenth century was accustomed to The theory that the miasma of yellow fever was due to the leave his home in New York and, after going up to a cave in gaseous emanations from decayingvegetableand animalmatter the mountains about West Point with his crucibles and chemiwas held b y nearly all writers a century ago. Thomas Paine, cal vessels, would smelt ore and return with plenty of silver. who spent a number of years in Kern York, believed the causaHe was a very learned man, dressed carelessly, and loved to tive agent to be marsh gas. Dr. S. L. Mitchill attributed the play tricks upon boys by asking them to pick up globules of to a n oxide of nitrogen which he called “septous contagion quicksilver. He was always uneasy about something and gas” and supposed to be fixed by lime (IOAY). The plentidisappeared mysteriously about 1730. ful distribution of lime upon the streets was Mitchill’s method With regard to iatrochemistry in S e w York, we have space of combating yellow fever. Lime was also applied to the to mention only Dr. John Muirson (Q), a pupil of Boerdecks of suspected vessels entering quarantine. haave, whose process of mercurial inoculation for smallpox In the yellow fever epidemic of 1822 the Xew York Board was introduced two centuries ago. The method consisted in of Health scattered upon the streets of the city not only lime preparing the body for the inoculation by administering but charcoal, tanbark, and ashes in their effort to disinfect heavy doses of calomel which were followed by equally heavy the atmosphere (IOBD). In the light of our present knowldoses of powdered antimony, cream of tartar, and brimstone. edge we look back v i t h tolerant sympathy upon these misAfter several weeks of this treatment the medicines were taken efforts. It was only when the stagnant swamps, ponds, stopped and the patient inoculated with smallpox, which was and other breeding places of mosquitoes were all abolished allowed to run its course. The purging and sweating away that epidemics of yellow fever finally disappeared from S e w of the supposed morbific matter on which the contagion fed York. were thought to weaken the virulence of the disease so that the Pigs (IOBD) were allowed to run loose in the streets of attack was a mild one. This method of inoculation was Kew York as scavengers of garbage until after 1825, and used extensively for some fifty years during epidemics of much of the city’s water, which was notoriously bad, was obsmallpox in New York Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore; tained from polluted wells. The old Tea Water Pump it was even introduced into London. upon the chemical industries of the United States is not only of great historical and statistical value but its complete applicability to the conditions which prevailed a century later make it one of the most interesting and important documents in the annals of Aimericanchemistry. I t repreqented a summation of previous accomplishments and it was an augury of vaster chemical achievements in the years to come.
O F hlANHATT.4N IVATER C H A M B E R S STREET, 1825
RESERVOIR
WORKS, (FROM
lluirson was the forerunner of a long line of physicians who did much for chemistry in old Kew York and who labored for the control of the various epidemics which ravaged the city from time to time. The worst of these was yellow fever (IOBI)whioh on more than ten different occasions between 1790 and 1820 carried off many thousands of victims. The sanitary conditions of Kew York during the first two centuries of its history were indescribably bad. Many of the epi-
VALENTINE’S MAKUAL,1855)
(IOBG) on Park Row was in active use until 1827. The Manhattan Company ( I O A Z ) , organized in 1799, began the distribution of water in n’ew York in 1800 through wooden pipes supplied from its Chambers Street reservoir into which water was pumped from a well. (Old specimens of the wooden pipes used by the Manhattan Company can be seen a t the Manhattan Rank of Kew York.) The service, which was bad, continued for several decades. It was only after
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the opening of the Croton aqueduct in 1842 that Xew York obtained a supply of pure water sufficient for its needs. In 1697 the streets of New York were fmt ordered to be lighted in “the Darke time of the moon” by means of lanterns and candles hung out on poles (IOP). This system continued in use until 1761 when whale oil lamps were introduced. Since the storing of the city’s lamp oil ( f 0 AU ) in casks was subject to great waste from leakage, a suitable storehouse with a cistern was finally erected in 1790 behind the Bridewell or city prison. In 1813 the use of gas (IOBB) for lighting the streets was first proposed. On September 29, 1821, gaslights were tried at the P a r k T h e a t e r (fOBC). A contemporary notice in the New Yorlc Evening Post stated :
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This notice obviously contains a reference to the experimental work of Franklin who gave Philadelphia that lead in the field of science which it maintained in America for over a century. King’s College (known after the Revolution as Columbia University) ( 5 ) was founded in New York in 1754. Instruction was given in the rudimentary branches of natural philosophy, lectures upon which were scheduled to begin in the library on July 3, 1766; how much of this course may be termed [‘chemistry” is difficult to determine. The college founded a school of medicine in 1767, and upon its faculty occurs the name of Dr. James Smith as prof e s s o r of chemistry and materia medica. The New York Mercury of November 9, 1767, contains an acT h e color of t h e count of the opening light is whiter than that of oil and more of the Medical School brilliant. We underof King’s College in sland that the proprietor proposes to the which appears the folowners of the theatre l o w i n g i t e m : “Dr. to furnish ample light Smith, professor of for the house a t a KING’SCOLLEGEAS IT APPEAREDBEFORE THE REVOLUTION chymistry, gave an much less expence (FROM VALENTINE’S MANUAL.1857) introductory Lecture t h a n i t is done at present and will waron that Branch, which rant it will be not only free of smell, b u t what is of more consefor Elegance and Sublimity, met with universal Approbaquence, free of that degree of smoke which is not only injurious tion.” This is the earliest contemporary reference to a proand offensive to the eyes, but proceeding from lamps is nearly fessorship of chemistry in any educational institution of ruinous to the light silk dresses of the ladies. Korth America which the writer has been able to find. King’s College suffered greatly during the British occupaOn March 26, 1823, the New York Gas Light Company tion of Kew York. After peace was declared, Col. Matthew (10BE) was organized and on May 12 was granted a franClarkson was authorized on May 26, 1784, by the regents of chise by the city council under the condition that before Columbia to visit Europe and to “purchase such philosophical May 12, 1825, they should erect and complete good and sufapparatus for the College as Dr. Franklin, Mr. Adams and ficient buildings, works, and apparatus for the preparation Mr. Jefferson, Ministers of the United States, should advise.” and manufacture of gas; cause the necessary pipes to be The apparatus thus acquired was no doubt the beginning made of cast iron and to be laid; and manufacture and supply of Columbia’s equipment for teaching chemistry and other in the most approved manner sufficient quantities of the best natural sciences. quality gas, commonly called “inflammable gas,” for lighting In 1792 a professorship of “Natural History, Chemistry, Broadway from Grand Street to the Battery. London gas Agriculture and other Arts depending thereon” was estabwas adopted as the standard for best quality gas. An exlished a t Columbia with an annual salary of 2200, Dr. Samuel hibition (IOBF) of the new gas took place on April 22, 1824, Latham Mitchill, a pupil of Dr. Joseph Black, being the first a t 286 Water Street, in the first house in New York to be incumbent. This course was advertised: lighted by gas from a central plant. To comprehend the Philosophical Doctrines of Chemistry and Natural History under the following heads: 1. Geology, Early Developments in Chemical Education or the natural and chemical History of the Earth; 2. Meteorology, or the natural and rhemical History of the Atmosphere; Instruction in chemistry lagged in S e w York behind the 3. Hydrology, or the natural and chemical History of Waters; industrial developments of this science, as was the case in all 4. Mineralogy, or the natural and chemical History of Fossil substances; 5. Botany, or the natural and chemical History of our American colonies. The New York Post Boy for January Plants; 6. Zoology, or the natural and chemical History of 16, 1744, announced that Dr. Spencer (IOT) advertises “anAnimals. other course of Experimental Philosophy” under which title a considerable amount of chemistry was usually comprised. Chemistry is thus pictured as the basis of all the natural On May 18, 1752, the New York Mercury (IOV) published sciences. It was announced that any gentleman might atthe following: tend the class in chemistry, without regularly attending college. Notice to the CUriOUS: That at the house O f Mr. James Trotter The first published work by Mitehill, afterhis appointment in the Broad-Way, there will be exhibited, t o begin on Thursday to this ProfessorshiP, was his “New Nomenclature of Chemisnext, and continue from Da to Day (the weather being suitable) try.” It was his claim that he “taught the reformed chemisfor two or three Weeks, a 8ourse of Experiments on the newlydiscovered Electrical Fire, containing, not only the most curious try of the French and unfurled the banner of Lavoisier Sooner of those that have been made and published in Europe, but a ’ * *than any Other professor in the United States‘” It was considerable Number of new Ones, lately made in Philadelphia; to be accompanied with methodical Lectures on the Nature and Mitchill’s great privilege in June, 1794, to assist in the welProperties of that wonderful Element. come extended to the famous English exile, Dr. Joseph
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INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
Priestley ( 7 ) , whose two-week stay in New York, following his arrival on June 4, was a continual round of felicitations and festivities by political, civic, mercantile, medical, and educational societies. The reception of Priestley in New York is the greatest social event in the annals of American chemistry. Lpon his election to the House of Representatives in 1801, hlitchill resigned his professorship a t Columbia, but in 1807 his name appears once more as professor of chernistry upon the faculty of the newly established College of Physicians and Surgeons of which he was also vice president. Later he was appointed professor of natural history while Dr. William J. Macneven (6) was made professor of chemistry and materia medica. Nacneven, who was a political refugee from Ireland. is best knon-n for hi. American edition of Brande‘s “pVIanua1 of Chemistry” which for many years held a leading place among the chemical textbooks used in the United States. Among other chemical works by Macneven are hii “Chemical Examinations of the Mineral Water a t Schooley’s Mountain,” 1815; “Chemical Exercises in the Laboratory a t the College of Physicians and Surgeons,” 1819; “Exposition of the Atomic Theory of Chemistry and the Doctrine of Definite Proportions,” 1819; and “A Tabular View of the Modern Nomenclature and System of Chemistry,” 1821. The lofty monument (a) to Macneven in St. Paul’s Churchyard on lower Broadway is passed daily by more people than that of any other American chemist. Every member of our SOCIETY in walking by this memorial should pause to read the inscription, for it is prophetic of the modern era in American chemistry which this distinguished teacher helped to usher in. The beginning of the nineteenth century witnessed in New York, as in other American cities, a great awakening of popular interest in chemistry and other sciences. John Lambert (IOBA),an English visitor, wrote in November 1807: “It has become the fashion in New York to attend lectures on moral philosophy, chemistry, mineralogy, botany, mechanics, etc. . ; and the ladies have made particular progress in these studies.” Libraries began to stock their shelves with chemistry books and thus helped to satisfy the popular craving for chemical knowledge. I n the acquisition of rare chemical books New York was particularly fortunate, for in 1812 Francis B. Winthrop, the great-great-grandson of America’s first chemist, John Winthrop, Jr., presented to the Society Library of New York a collection of 270 books that belonged to his famous ancestor, of which 52 relate to chemistry and alchemy. These ancient volumes, which can still be seen a t the Society Library, are historically the most valuable collection of chemical books in the United States, for they take us back three centuries to the time when John Winthrop, Jr., first brought chemistry into the American wilderness. The first fruits of the local awakening of popular interest in science was the establishment in New York, in the decade following the close of the War of 1812, of several scientific associations and institutions which were of great influence in the future cultural life of the city. Among these may be named “The Lyceum of Natural History” founded in 1817, “The New York Mechanic and Scientific Institution” founded in 1822, and “The New Pork Athenaeum” founded in 1824. Among the organizers of the Athenaeum were Macneven and Mitchill. In the first course of 1824-25 Macneven lectured upon applied chemistry and Dr. J. Smyth Rogers upon elementary chemistry. Chemical lectures in subsequent courses were given by James Renwick, James Freeman Dana, and John Revere. The Lyceum, Athenaeum, and other scientific organizations helped greatly to popularize chemistry. They served also as rallying centers for those who were interested in the study of chemistry-a service which they performed for more than fifty years until this special phase of their activities was finally superseded by the
5 13
founding in New York, on the evening of April 6, 1876, in the lecture room of the College of Pharmacy in the old building of New York University on Washington Square, of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY.
Conclusion I n the two-century period which has been so briefly sketched, we have seen how chemistry in old New York expanded from small household beginnings in a little village of some 270 souls in 1635 to the well-organized stage of development which marked the commencement of the modern era in 1835 when the city had a population of 270,000. It is a record of which the city may well be proud, for in its accomplishment not only industry but patriotism, civic welfare, philanthropy, and culture have contributed a part. The fragmentary account which has been given of chemical developments in New York is, however, only one chapter in the complete history of chemistry in America. When the time shall arrive for the final writing of such a history, it is hoped that every local section of the AhlERICAlV CHEMICAL SOCIETY may help to assemble the scattered records and thus make the story of “Our Chemical Heritage” complete.
Literature Cited (1) Barrett, Walter, “The Old Merchants of New York City.” Tol. 1, pp. 270-6, New York, 11. Doolady, 1870; ( A ) Ibid., Vol. 111, p. 167. 12) Browne, C. A, J. Chem. Education, 9, 704 (1932). (3) Brou-ne, C.A., J. IND. EXG.CHEM.,9, 122, 177-81 (1917). (4) Chemical Bank & T r u s t Co., ”Chemistry t o Banking,” 1913. ( 5 ) Columbia Cniversity, “A History of Columbia University 1754-1904,” New York, 1904. (6) Francis, J. IT., in 9. D. Gross’s “Lives of Eminent American Physicians and Surgeons of t h e Nineteenth Century,” Philadelphia, Lindsay & Blakiston, 1861. (7) Smith, E. F., “Priestley in America,” pp. 21-40, Philadelphia, P. Blakiston’s Son 8: Co., 1920. ( 8 ) Steendam, Jacob, ”‘t Lof van Kieuw Nederland,” Amsterdam, 1661; “Jacob Steendam, noch vaster. A memoir of t h e First Poet in New Netherland with his poems descriptive of t h e Colony.” Edited by H . C. Murphy v i t h versified English translation, p. 44, T h e Hague, T h e Brothers Giunta D’Albani, 1861; Stokes, I. N . P., “Iconography of Manhattan Island 1498-1909,” Vol. IV, p. 209, S e w York, Robert H . Dodd, 1916. (9) Stiles, Ezra, “Extracts from the Itineraries and other Miscellanies of Ezra Stiles, D.D., L!.D., 1755-1794, with a Selection from his Correspondence. Edited by F. B. Dexter, p. 416, S e w Haven, Yale University Press, 1916; “ T h e Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles,” Edited by F. B. Dexter, Vol. 111,p. 177, New York, C. Scribner’s Sons, 1901. (10) Stokes, I. N. P., “Iconography of Manhattan Island 1498-1909,” Vol. I, p . 431, Kew York, Robert H . Dodd, 1915; ( A ) Ibid., Vol. 11, pp. 209-348; ( B ) 11, 229-30; (C) 11, 244; (D)11, 251-2; ( E ) 11, 257; ( F ) 11, 258; (G) 11, 263-4; (H) 11, 288; ( I ) 11, 299; (J)11, 302; ( K ) 11, 304; (L)11, 330; ( M ) I V , 56; (iV)I V , 310; (0) I V , 403, 453; ( P ) IV, 404; (Q) IV, 446; ( R ) IV, 514; (S) IV, 516; (T)I V , 578; ( C ) IV, 579; ( V ) I V , 633; ( W ) I V , 646; (X)IV, 662; ( Y ) IV, 7 0 2 ; ( Z ) I V , 722; ( A A ) I V , 740-1, 744; ( A B ) I V , 745; ( A C ) IV, 751; ( A D ) I V , 752 (see also resolutions of the “Sons of Liberty” in New York, Oct. 31, 1766); ( A E ) IV, 786; (AF) IV, 790; ( A G ) IV, 834; ( A H ) IV, 855; ( A I ) IV, 870; (AJ) I V , 888; ( B K ) IV, 911; ( A L ) IV, 920; (AM) IV, 930; ( B N ) V, 995; ( A O ) V, 1032; ( A P ) V, 1036: (A&) V, 1051, 1054-5; ( A R ) V, 1090; ( A S ) V, 1097; ( A T ) V, 1197; ( A U ) V, 1261; (AV) V, 1265; ( A W ) V, 1338, 1342; ( A X ) V, 1363; ( A Y ) V, 1356-7; ( A Z ) V, 1368-9; ( B A ) V,1477; ( B B ) V , 1 5 6 3 ; (BC)V,1618; ( B D ) V, 1624; ( B E ) V, 1628; ( B F ) V , 1638; (BG) V, 1664; . ( B H ) V I , 16; (BI)V I , 676. (11) Swank, J. h l . , “Notes and Comments on Industrial, Economic, Political and Historical Subjects,” p. 1, Philadelphia, Am. Iron and Steel Assoc., 1897; ( A ) Ibid., p. 2. (12) Turnbull, A. D., “John Stevens,” p. 386, New York, Century Co., 1928. (13) Woodrow Wilson, “History of t h e American People,” Vol. XI. pp. 101-4, New York, Harper and Brothers, 1907.
RECEIVED January 11, 1935.
