AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE COLUMBUS. 321 



the method of operating. As to whether this mill in the year 

 1818 was precisely the one built in 1751, Mr. Wilder states that 

 it is likely there had been some renewals of the wood-work, but 

 most of the iron- work was the original. It was impossible to break 

 down the mill, from the fact that, if a heavy piece or a pair of 

 tongs were passed in, the effect would be after some squeaking 

 of the timber- wheels to stop everything." 



The claim made that this rolling-mill was the first in America 

 can not be substantiated, for, according to the evidence adduced, 

 it was not erected until 1751 ; but it is certain that there were 

 already several slitting-mills in operation in the colonies, as is 

 proved by the certificates transmitted to the Commissioners for 

 Trade and Plantations by the Governors, Lieutenant-Governors, 

 or commanders-in-chief of his Majesty's colonies in America, in 

 pursuance of an act of the twenty-third of his present Majesty's 

 [George II, 1750] reign, containing accounts of any mill or engine 

 for slitting or rolling of iron, and any plating-forge to work 

 with a tilt-hammer, and any furnace for making steel, erected in 

 any of his Majesty's colonies in America " : 



Maryland 



Pennsylvania 



New Jersey 



New York 



Connecticut 



Massachusetts Bay. 



Mill or engine for 

 slitting or rolling iron. 



I 



1, not now in use. 



1,1 



Plating forge to work with a 

 tilt-hammer. 



1, with two tilt-hammers. 



1 



1, not now in use. 



1 



1, 1, 1,1, 1, 1 

 1 



Furnace for making 



steel. 



1 , not now in use. 



1 

 1* 



By these certificates of 1750 it appears that in all the colonies 

 there were four slitting-mills, two of which were in Massachu- 

 setts ; and as Judge Peter Oliver's mill was not erected (" by spe- 

 cial privilege ") until 1751, it could not have been one of them, 

 and for the same reason it is certain that it was not the first 

 rolling-mill in America. Nevertheless the paper of Mr. Harrison 

 is instructive and valuable, inasmuch as it gives us the only 

 reliable technical information we have relative to the construc- 

 tion and operation of rolling and slitting mills in colonial 

 times. In addition to the leading constructive features of this 

 mill, we are given some facts regarding its administration, and 

 are told that " about eight men were employed, at about one dol- 

 lar per day ; six heats, of about eight hundred pounds each, were 

 made in twelve hours' running. One pint of rum was consumed 

 for each heat, or more, according to the weather. The value of 

 the forge iron was one hundred dollars per ton ; nail-rods, one 



* A Comprehensive History of the Iron Trade throughout the World, from the Earliest 

 Records to the Present Period. By Harry Scrivenor. London, 1841. 



