AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE COLUMBUS. 151 



were erected in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in what is 

 now the town of Saugus, a suburb of the city of Lynn, about ten 

 miles northeast of Boston. Their owners, " The Company of 

 Undertakers for the Iron-works," were granted a number of 

 special privileges, among which was the monopoly of the manu- 

 facture for twenty-one years. The works appear to have been 

 commenced late in the year 164.') or in the beginning of 1644, 

 and were nearly completed in 1645, as on the 14th day of May in 

 that year the General Court passed a " Resolve," declaring that 

 "y e iron- works is very successful (both in y e richness of y e ore 

 and y e goodness of y e iron)," and that " y e furnace is built, with 

 that which belongeth to it, . . . and some tuns of so we iron cast 

 . . . in readiness for y e forge." On the 14th of October of that 

 year the General Court granted still further privileges on the 

 condition " that the inhabitants of this jurisdiction be furnished 

 with barr iron of all sorts for their use, not exceeding twentye 

 pounds per tunn," and that the land already granted be used 

 " for the building and seting up of six forges, or furnaces, and 

 not bloomaries onely," and the company was confirmed in the 

 right to the free use of all materials " for making or moulding 

 any manner of gunnes, potts, and all other cast-iron ware." 



On the 6th of May, 1646, Richard Leader, the general agent of 

 the company, purchased " some of the country's gunnes to melt 

 over at the foundery." This statement seems to justify the belief 

 that there may have been a reverberatory furnace in this " found- 

 ery," as such furnaces were well known in Europe at that date, and 

 castings of all sorts were made from metal melted in them ; but 

 it is certain that, at the same period, castings were frequently 

 made from iron taken direct from the blast-furnace, and we know 

 that scrap cast iron can be melted in a blast-furnace without diffi- 

 culty. The cupola furnace, for remelting " pig iron " and scrap 

 cast iron, was not invented until 1790, and, consequently, we are 

 sure that it was not employed in the " foundery " at Lynn in 1646. 

 Hence it is evident that the " gunnes " purchased must have been 

 remelted in the " blast-furnace," or in a reverberatory furnace, 

 although we have no decisive evidence of the employment of the 

 latter type of furnace. 



It is certain that at Lynn, in the Province of Massachusetts 

 Bay, was cast, in the year 1645, the first piece of hollow ware made 

 in America " a small iron pot capable of containing about one 

 quart." * This pioneer of all American-made castings was in ex- 

 istence in 1844, but recent efforts f to ascertain its whereabouts 

 have been unsuccessful. The works at Lynn appear to have been 

 very prosperous for a number of years ; but after a time they 



* Lewis's History of Lynn, 1844. f By C. H. J. Woodbury, Esq., of Lynn. 



