26 



NEW YORK GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. Genealogical and 

 Biographical Record. Jan., 1875. 8vo pamph. 



NEW YORK LYCEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. Annals, Vol. xi, Nos. 1-2, July, 1874. 



ROYAL CORNWALL POLYTECHNIC SOCIETY. Forty-First Annual Report, 1873. 

 1 vol. 12mo. 



PUBLISHERS. American Journal of Science and Art. Forest and Stream. 

 Gardener's Monthly. Gloucester Telegraph. Haverhill Gazette. Ipswich Chron- 

 icle. Lawrence American. Lynn Reporter. Lynn Transcript. Medical and 

 Surgical Reporter. Nation. Nature. Peabody Press. Public Spirit. Quaritch's 

 Catalogue. Salem Observer. Salem Post. 



The meeting was principally occupied in listening to a 

 very interesting and instructive presentation of the sub- 

 ject of comb manufacturing, by Hayden Brown, Esq., of 

 West Newbury, who has been engaged for many years in 

 the business. He gave a detailed account of the process 

 of the manufacture of horn combs, interspersed with many 

 entertaining anecdotes and pithy sayings. The first combs 

 made in America were manufactured by hand, and with 

 rude implements, in 1759, by Enoch Noyes, of Newbury, 

 a self-taught mechanic, who cut horn buttons and coarse 

 combs as well as he was able. He continued at this busi- 

 ness until 1778, when William Cleland, a deserter from 

 Burgoyne's army, a comb-maker by profession and a skil- 

 ful workman, sought out Mr. Noyes and engaged with 

 him, greatly increasing the production of combs, the man- 

 ufacture of which has been continued in Newbury to this 

 day, and immensely increased by the use of the most in- 

 genious machines, one of which, he stated, tended by a lad 

 of twelve years, can do the work which formerly required 

 thirty-five men, and with his present force of fifty men, 

 he could turn out more and better combs than a regiment 

 of men could a half or three-quarters of a century ago. 



Mr. Brown thought the earliest combs used must have 

 been made of wood. Specimens were exhibited of the 

 crude horn, of the material after it had gone through the 

 several processes required, and of the several varieties of 

 combs manufactured, beautifully finished and polished. 



