Midnight Ride, Industrial Dawn

by Robert Martello

  52. E. H. Goss, The Life of Colonel Paul Revere (Boston: Joseph G. Cupples, 1891), p. 534.

  53. Puddling eventually replaced fineries by using the reverberatory principle to reflect and concentrate heat onto the pig iron to remove impurities. Rosenberg, Technology and American Economic Growth, p. 77; Gordon, American Iron, pp. 15–16; Charles F. Carroll, The Timber Economy of Puritan New England (Providence: Brown University Press, 1973), p. 10; Theodore Wertime, The Coming of the Age of Steel (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1961), p. 110; Paul F. Paskoff, Industrial Evolution: Organization, Structure, and Growth of the Pennsylvania Iron Industry (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983), p. 21.

  54. John R. Stilgoe, Common Landscape of America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982), p. 293; Walker, Hopewell Village, pp. 121, 136. When coal became the fuel of choice later in the nineteenth century, environmental impacts grew: coal and ore excavations left cavities in the ground, sulfur in coal entered wastewater and acidified streams and lakes, coal mines were messes of refuse and toxicity, air pollution intensified and was noticeable. Steam power also accelerated environmental degradation—ironworks could be located in cities and affected residents. Gordon, American Iron, pp. 4–5.

  55. This comparison of costs and expenses represents a worst-case scenario for Revere. His recorded cash receipts end prematurely on November 12, 1793, and he might have received more income from his 1793 sales after that date. Similarly, his post-November 25 expenses include close to 100 pounds of copper, tin, iron, coal, and one unlisted purchase, clearly not used in the 1793 production. The above analysis therefore might underestimate Revere’s income and overstate his expenses.

  56. Revere’s wastebooks were lists of all transactions that took place, arranged chronologically. His ledgers were account books sorted by client. Periodically, he transcribed the entries from wastebooks into the proper section of the ledger, allowing him to determine how much each client owed.

  57. 1792–1794 furnace records, in ledger titled “1787 The Iron Furnace D. to Stock,” reel 6, vol. 9, part 2, RFP.

  58. Gordon, American Iron, p. 1.

  59. Perkins, Economy of Colonial America, pp. 127–130.

  CHAPTER FIVE: Bells, Cannon, and Malleable Copper (1792–1801)

  1. Jayne E. Triber, A True Republican (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1998), pp. 8–9, 20, 158.

  2. Edward Stickney and Evelyn Stickney, The Bells of Paul Revere (Bedford: n.p., 1976), pp. 4–5, 14; Triber, A True Republican, p. 167; Elbridge Henry Goss, The Life of Colonel Paul Revere (Boston: Plimpton Press, 1902), pp. 538–541; Esther Forbes, Paul Revere and the World He Lived In (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969), pp. 385–387.

  3. Edwin Griffin Porter, Rambles in Old Boston (Boston: Cupples, Upham, and Company, 1887), p. 330.

  4. Douglass C. North, The Economic Growth of the United States, 1790–1860 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1966), pp. 46–54; Paul A. Gilje, “The Rise of Capitalism in the Early Republic,” Journal of the Early Republic 16, no. 2 (Summer 1996): 176–177.

  5. Percival Price, Bells and Man (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983), pp. 1, 73, 91; John Camp, Bell Ringing (New York: A. S. Barnes & Company, 1974), pp. 11–13, 77.

  6. Figure 5.1 taken from Forbes, Paul Revere’s Ride, p. 391. Also see Stickney and Stickney, Bells of Paul Revere, p. 4.

  7. Camp, Bell Ringing, pp. 85–86; Henry J. Kauffman, American Copper and Brass (Camden, N.J.: T. Nelson Publishers, 1968), p. 170.

  8. Stickney and Stickney, Bells of Paul Revere, p. 5.

  9. Malachite ore could plausibly have entered pottery kilns as a green pigment or as an impurity within the pottery clay. Early pottery workers might have noticed a metallic residue at the bottom of their kilns, and further experimentation could have showed them how to intentionally convert malachite into usable metal.

  10. Robert Raymond, Out of the Fiery Furnace: The Impact of Metals on the History of Mankind (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1986), pp. 10–13, 16, 21; Stephen Sass, The Substance of Civilization: Materials and Human History from the Stone Age to the Age of Silicon (New York: Arcade Publishing, 1999), pp. 49–53. Copper smelting may have been independently discovered in China and Africa.

  11. The source of tin used by these early bronze workers in the Ancient Near East is a matter of some speculation and mystery. Tin oxides occur in hard rocks such as granite, which lay well beyond the extraction capabilities of this time period. Therefore, any usable tin would have to come from “native” sources, such as a vein of fairly pure tin that might be washed out of a rock by the action of a stream. The world’s major tin deposits exist far from the early centers of bronze production, necessitating the development of trade networks. Raymond, Out of the Fiery Furnace, pp. 31–34.

  12. Raymond, Out of the Fiery Furnace, pp. 25–27; Sass, The Substance of Civilization, pp. 59–62.

  13. Margaret H. Hazen and Robert M. Hazen, Wealth Inexhaustible (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1985), p. 92.

  14. Bell metal quote taken from A Supplement to Chambers’ Cyclopedia or Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (London, 1753), quoted in Kauffman, American Copper and Brass, p. 169. Also see Kauffman, American Copper and Brass, p. 169; Stickney and Stickney, The Bells of Paul Revere, p. 7.

  15. Arthur H. Nichols, The Bells of Paul and Joseph W. Revere (Boston: Newcomb & Gauss Press, 1911), p. 1; Kauffman, American Copper and Brass, p. 163.

  16. December 7, 1789 letter from Nicholas Brown, “Loose Manuscripts 1746–1801,” Revere Family Papers (hereafter RFP), microfilm edition, 15 reels (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1979), reel 1.

  17. December 3, 1791 letter to Dr. Lestrom (sic), August 20, 1792 letter from Dr. Lettsom, and March 29, 1793 letter from Dr. Lettsom, all in “Letterbook 1783–1800,” reel 14, vol. 53.1, RFP.

  18. An additional problem with casting copper is the fact that copper takes on oxygen when it is melted, making it viscous and hard to mold. Founders often overcame this difficulty by adding lead to the melt. James A. Mulholland, History of Metals in Colonial America (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1981), p. 93.

  19. Ledger titled “1787 The Iron Furnace D. to Stock,” 1792–1794 furnace records, reel 6, vol. 9, part 2, RFP.

  20. Kauffman, American Copper and Brass, pp. 171–172; Camp, Bell Ringing, pp. 84–86.

  21. For example, in one August 30, 1802 letter to Messrs. Heywood, Flagg, and Stowell, Revere states, “Your Bell is an exact coppy from the English Bell in Christ Church in Boston” (Letterbook 1801–1806, reel 14, vol. 53, RFP). Revere’s list of bells and their weights also indicates groupings of bells with similar weights: for example, in the years 1804 through 1807 he cast bells with weights of 1,015, 1,017, 1,017, 1,018, and 1,020 pounds. See “Account Book Boston 1793–1810,” reel 6, vol. 9, RFP, and “Stock Book 1793–1828,” reel 11, vol. 40, RFP.

  22. Because the molten metal flowed downward into the mold it had to lie at a lower elevation than the furnace, probably in a large pit that could be expanded or partially filled in to bring each bell to the proper height.

  23. Porter, Rambles in Old Boston, p. 241.

  24. Paul Jr. no longer played a central role in the family businesses by the 1790s, as his primary function seems to have been the management of the silver shop, whose importance faded in comparison to the more lucrative ironwork, copperwork, and bronze-work in the foundry. Paul Revere paid many of Paul. Jr.’s expenses, including his taxes, rent, and wood, for the remainder of Paul Jr.’s life. Evidence of Revere’s support of his oldest son is located in several receipts in the receipt book, Boston 1780–1805 (reel 12, vol. 41, RFP) as well as notations in the wastebook and memoranda (reel 5, vol. 2, RFP).

  25. Undated entry, “Stock Book 1793–1828,” reel 11, vol. 40, p. 1, RFP.

  26. Quoted in Forbes, Paul Revere and the World He Lived In, p. 390.

  27. Undated entry, “Stock Book 1793–1828.” reel 11, vol. 40, p. 1, RFP. Although this is undated, the reference to
dollars instead of pounds and shillings implies that it took place after 1795.

  28. Renee Lynn Ernay, “The Revere Furnace” (master’s thesis, University of Delaware, 1989), p. 13.

  29. “Memorandum of Bells cast by me Paul Revere,” reel 6, vol. 9, RFP, and entry in Stock Book 1793–1828, reel 11, vol. 40, RFP.

  30. Revere has many notations of bell prices throughout his records, including those in his Boston Wastebook, 1799–1803, reel 5, vol. 4, RFP; Boston Wastebook, 1804–1811, reel 5, vol. 5, RFP, and many others.

  31. William H. McNeill, The Pursuit of Power: Technology, Armed Force, and Society since A.D. 1000 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), pp. 81–83, 86–88; Geoffrey Parker, The Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West, 1500–1800 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 7–9, 83–84; Albert C. Manucy, Artillery Through the Ages (Washington: U.S. Printing Office, 1962 reprint), pp. 3–4.

  32. Venetian Senate quote taken from Parker, The Military Revolution, p. 10. Also see McNeill, The Pursuit of Power, pp. 87–89, 100; Parker, The Military Revolution, pp. 89–90, 128–129.

  33. Knox quote taken from Mulholland, A History of Metals in Colonial America, p. 118. Also see Mulholland, A History of Metals in Colonial America, pp. 122–123; Manucy, Artillery Through the Ages, p. 10.

  34. Quote taken from Mulholland, A History of Metals in Colonial America, p. 129; also see pp. 124–127; Hazen and Hazen, Wealth Inexhaustible, p. 204.

  35. Mulholland, A History of Metals in Colonial America, p. 7.

  36. McNeill, The Pursuit of Power, pp. 166–170; Kauffman, American Copper and Brass, p. 196; T. K. Derry and Trevor Williams, A Short History of Technology (New York: Oxford University Press, 1960), pp. 150, 350. Revere paid Elib Faxon more than 121 pounds to bore and finish 10 howitzers and 12 cannon in 1795. The receipt from Faxon, displayed in the following section, includes charges such as “To turning & boring & filing.” Receipt dated “1795 Paul Revere to Elib Faxon,” in “Loose Manuscripts 1746–1801,” reel 1, RFP.

  37. Revere to James Byers, May 24, 1795, “Letterbook 1783–1800,” reel 14, vol. 53.1, RFP.

  38. Robert B. Gordon, American Iron, 1607–1900 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), p. 202; Clyde Sanders and Dudley Gould, History Cast in Metal (Naperville, Ill.: Cast Metals Institute, 1976), p. 152.

  39. Henry Knox letter to Paul Revere, March 11, 1794, “Loose Manuscripts 1746–1801,” reel 1, RFP.

  40. Tench Coxe letter to Paul Revere, June 16, 1794, Tench Coxe contract with Paul Revere, July 23, 1794, Henry Knox letter to Paul Revere, June 17, 1794, all in “Loose Manuscripts 1746–1801,” reel 1, RFP.

  41. Revere’s quotes to Byers taken from letters to James Byers on October 29, 1795, and May 24, 1795, from “Letterbook 1783–1800,” reel 14, vol. 53.1, RFP. Also see Tench Coxe contract with Paul Revere, July 23, 1794, “Loose Manuscripts 1746–1801,” reel 1, RFP.

  42. Ledger entry beginning “Memorandum of Stock in Furnace May 1799 as taken by Joshua & Jos. W. Revere,” in “Account Book Boston, 1783–1804,” reel 6, vol. 9b, RFP.

  43. These figures are taken from Revere’s tally entitled “Boston Octo 22 1795 To casting & finishing 10 brass howitzers weighing . . .,” in “Account Book Boston, 1783–1804,” reel 6, vol. 9, RFP. Revere did not know the amount of leftover copper that he sent to Byers, so he wasted approximately 8,200 pounds of metal minus whatever he sent.

  44. Revere letter to Tench Coxe, July 31, 1794, “Loose Manuscripts 1746–1801,” reel 1, RFP.

  45. Revere letter to Tench Coxe, July 31, 1794, “Loose Manuscripts 1746–1801,” reel 1, RFP. Revere’s many letters to different merchants and sea captains on the subject of copper and tin purchases are collected in the “Letterbook 1783–1800,” reel 14, vol. 53.1, RFP.

  46. Quote about the degree of waste taken from Revere letter to Nathaniel Gorham, January 27, 1796, “Letterbook 1783–1800,” reel 14, vol. 53.1, RFP. General contract information appears in the ledger beginning with “Boston New England 1794, Aug 16, Furnace for Brass Howitzers,” and ledger six pages later, titled “1794 The United States,” both in “Account Book Boston, 1783–1804,” reel 6, vol. 9b, RFP. Revere’s contract and some of his defenses of his operations are included in Tench Coxe to Paul Revere, July 21, 1794, “Loose Manuscripts 1746–1801,” reel 1, RFP; in letters to Tench Coxe on November 3, 1794, to Henry Knox on November 3, 1794, and to Nathaniel Gorham, January 27, 1796, in “Letterbook 1783–1800,” reel 14, vol. 53.1, RFP; and also in an undated 1796 entry in “Account Book Boston, 1783–1804,” reel 6, vol. 9b, RFP.

  47. Revere letter to General Knox, November 3, 1794, “Letterbook 1783–1800,” reel 14, vol. 53.1, RFP.

  48. Quote taken from Gordon, American Iron, p. 3. Revere’s contract information located in April 1, 1798 ledger titled “Henry Jackson Esqu,” “Account Book Boston, 1783–1804,” reel 6, vol. 9b, RFP.

  49. Revere to James Lawrason, June 14, 1795, “Letterbook 1783–1800,” reel 14, vol. 53.1, RFP; ledgers beginning with “Boston April 16 1795,” “Account Book Boston, 1783–1804,” reel 6, vol. 9b, RFP.

  50. James Lawrason to Paul Revere, undated letter (date given as July 9, 1794, in following letter cited here), Lawrason to Paul Revere, May 28, 1795, Revere to Lawrason, June 14, 1795, and Lawrason to Paul Revere July 17, 1795, in “Loose Manuscripts 1746–1801,” reel 1, RFP, and “Letterbook 1783–1800,” reel 14, vol. 53.1, RFP.

  51. William Rhodes and Nathaniel Fisher to Revere, May 10, 1798, “Loose Manuscripts 1746–1801,” reel 1, RFP.

  52. Revere to Rhodes and Fisher, May 16, 1798, “Letterbook 1783–1800,” reel 14, vol. 53.1, RFP.

  53. Ledgers beginning with “Boston April 16 1795,” “Account Book Boston, 1783–1804,” reel 6, vol. 9b, RFP.

  54. James Lawrason to Paul Revere, undated letter (date given as July 9, 1794, in following letter cited here), Lawrason to Paul Revere, May 28, 1795, Revere to Lawrason, June 14, 1795, and Lawrason to Paul Revere July 17, 1795, “Loose Manuscripts 1746–1801,” reel 1, RFP, and “Letterbook 1783–1800,” reel 14, vol. 53.1, RFP.

  55. Revere to Rhodes and Fisher, May 16, 1798, “Letterbook 1783–1800,” reel 14, vol. 53.1, RFP.

  56. Revere to Nathan Fisher, August 23, 1798, and Revere to Nathan Fisher February 7, 1799, in “Letterbook 1783–1800,” reel 14, vol. 53.1, RFP; ledger titled “William Rhodes & Nathan Fischer,” August 30, 1798 in “Account Book Boston, 1783–1804,” reel 6, vol. 9b, RFP.

  57. Revere’s pricing information appears in an undated 1796 entry in “Account Book Boston, 1783–1804,” reel 6, vol. 9b, RFP. Other data taken from ledgers beginning with “Boston April 16 1795,” “Account Book Boston, 1783–1804,” reel 6, vol. 9b, RFP. Ledger dates usually correspond to the first entry in the ledger, as Revere often does not date the final transaction of each contract.

  58. Elib Faxon receipt dated April 2, 1796, “Loose Manuscripts,” reel 1, RFP. This receipt is reproduced in Appendix 6.

  59. Otis E. Young Jr., “Origins of the American Copper Industry,” Journal of the Early Republic 3 (Summer 1983): 118–123; Charles K. Hyde, Copper for America (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1998), p. 9; Mulholland, A History of Metals in Colonial America, pp. 43–47, 53.

  60. The transatlantic shipment of copper ore could be very profitable thanks to the high metal content of copper ore, which often exceeded 50 percent usable metal. Iron ore, in contrast, typically contains less than 10 percent usable metal, partially explaining why blast furnaces usually smelted iron close to its source. Demand for iron also dwarfed copper demand. Mulholland, A History of Metals in Colonial America, pp. 49, 53, 91, 166; Kauffman, American Copper and Brass, p. 17; Edwin Tunis, Colonial Craftsmen (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1965), pp. 76–77.

  61. Actual copper mine output is difficult to establish due to unreliable recordkeeping. The Simsbury and Shuyler mines produced most American copper, and American output plunged when they slowed or shut down. Amer
ican copper output exploded in the 1840s with the discovery of vast quantities of pure copper in Michigan, which by 1850 accounted for 88 percent of America’s copper production. Mulholland, A History of Metals in Colonial America, pp. 21, 43–47, 53; Hyde, Copper for America, pp. 4–6; Young, “Origins of the American Copper Industry,” pp. 118–123, 135–137.

  62. Thomas Cooper, in The Emporium of Arts and Sciences, vol. 3 (Philadelphia: Kimber & Richardson, 1814), p. 50. Also partially quoted in Hyde, Copper for America, p. 3.

  63. Hyde, Copper for America, pp. 7, 10; Mulholland, A History of Metals in Colonial America, pp. 91–92; Kauffman, American Copper and Brass, p. 37; Tunis, Colonial Craftsmen, pp. 76–77.

  64. The demand for bolts and spikes increased dramatically when shipbuilders started fastening copper sheets to the outside of ship hulls at this time to prolong hull life, a development covered at length in the following chapter. Rusting was exacerbated by a chemical reaction known as galvanic action between the iron fasteners and copper sheets. J. R. Harris, Industrial Espionage and Technology Transfer (Brookfield: Ashgate Publishing, 1998), p. 263.

  65. Revere to unknown recipient, quoted in Goss, The Life of Colonel Paul Revere, p. 544, taken from a private autograph collection.

  66. April 24, 1797 letter to John Brown Esq., “Letterbook 1783–1800,” reel 14, vol. 53.1, RFP.

  67. Revere to Harrison G. Otis, March 11, 1800, H. G. Otis Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.

  68. The concept of “strength” can be further divided according to the type of stress being resisted: tensile strength is resistance to pulling apart, shear strength is resistance to crosswise stresses, and bending strength, unsurprisingly, is resistance to bending motion.

  69. Gordon, American Iron, p. 13. Even with respect to iron, a metal used and understood far more than copper in Revere’s day, skilled workers did not fully comprehend the ramifications of their procedures or the different characteristics of metals.

  70. Plastic deformation differs from elastic deformation, which, as the name implies, involves a temporary change in a substance’s shape for as long as an external force is applied to it. An elastically deformed substance is able to revert back to its original shape when this force is removed. A plastically deformed substance is permanently altered and does not return to its original shape. Elastic deformation can be envisioned as a rubber band stretching and returning to its exact starting state.