322 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



hundred and twenty dollars ; and nails, twelve and a half cents 

 or ninepence per pound. The nail-rods were put up in bundles of 

 fifty-six pounds, and the nailers, who had their little shops around 

 in the country, were expected to bring back fifty pounds of headed 

 and pointed nails, receiving " store-pay " of calico, tea, rum, etc. 



From this account it appears that " rum," in quantity propor- 

 tioned " to the weather," was regarded as a necessary stimulant, 

 to be furnished the workmen to enable them to properly perform 

 their work. This custom, which was in fact universal in New 

 England at the time, seems to have had the sanction of several gen- 

 erations, for the New Haven colonial records tell us that " a propo- 

 sition made in May, 1662, ' in y e behalf e of Capt. Clarke, that 

 wine and liquors drawn at the jron workes might be custome 

 free/ was allowed to the extent of one butt of wine and one bar- 

 rel of liquors, and no more." 



The act of 1750 was pretty generally enforced in the colonies, 

 and the further erection of rolling and slitting mills prevented. 

 James Hamilton, Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief 

 of the Province of Pennsylvania, and William Franklin (son of 

 Benjamin Franklin), who was the royal Governor of the Prov- 

 ince of New Jersey (1762 to 1776), were especially zealous in en- 

 forcing this act. Hon. Edward D. Halsey, in his History of Mor- 

 ris County, tells us that " a slitting - mill was erected at Old 

 Boonton, on the Rockaway River, about a mile below the present 

 town of Boonton, in defiance of the law, by Samuel Ogden, of 

 Newark. The entrance was from the hill-side, and in the upper 

 room first entered there were stones for grinding grain, the slit- 

 ting-mill being below and out of sight. It is said that Governor 

 William Franklin visited the place suddenly, having heard a 

 rumor of its existence, but was so hospitably entertained by Mr. 

 Ogden, and the iron-works were so effectually concealed, that the 

 Governor came away saying that he was glad to find that it was a 

 groundless report, as he had always supposed." 



From the passage of the act of 1750 to the Revolution the iron 

 industry of America was chiefly confined to the manufacture of 

 pig and bar iron in the furnaces, forges, and mills already erected, 

 and of castings from the blast-furnaces. 



Israel Acrelius (who visited America in 1750-1756), in his His- 

 tory of New Sweden, when describing the iron-works of Pennsyl- 

 vania, says : " The workmen are partly English and partly Irish, 

 with some few Germans, though the work is carried on after the 

 English method. The pig iron is smelted into 'geese' (gcisar), 

 and is cast from five to six feet long and a half foot broad, for 

 convenience of forging, which is in the Walloon style. The pigs 

 are first operated upon by the finers (smelters). Then the chif- 

 fery, or hammer-men, take it back again into their hands and 



