Blacksmith Shop Research Articles

Archaeological applications of resistivity and magnetic methods at Fort Wilkins State Park, Michigan

Geophysical measurements were conducted to locate building sites at a nineteenth‐century fort in Michigan. The survey area, Fort Wilkins, was built during the copper boom of the 1840s and is located at the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Resistivity and magnetic surveys were conducted over the locations of former privies, a guard house, a carpenter house, and a blacksmith shop. The resistivity surveys were made using a half‐Schlumberger array with electrode spacings of 0.3, 0.6, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 m. A masonry foundation and the privies are indicated by high‐low resistivity pairs. Analog modeling was used to create anomalies similar to those seen over the privies. Measurements of the vertical magnetic gradient yielded anomalies which are associated primarily with modern objects.

Who Was Herm. Wang?

9 Who Was Herm. Wang? by Ingrid Semmingsen In Johannes B. Wisťs knowledgeable survey of the Norwegian language press in America after the Civil War one reads as follows: "Older readers of Verdens Gang in Kristiania will remember a familiar pseudonym that appeared in the latter part of the 1870s under several well-written satiric articles about such matters as military life on a drill ground or politics and the authorities. At the time, these articles created something of a stir and contributed greatly to the popularity of Verdens Gang . Later similar articles appeared in the same journal and from the same pen about the police in Kristiania, articles that were read with interest all over the country. The pseudonym was 'Herm. Wang.' In time it became just as well known in America as it once had been in Norway. The real name that for a long time was hidden behind this nom deplume is Ole S. Hervin. He was born in Stange, Hedmark, in 1852, attended the military academy for petty officers, and became a sergeant in 1873. Besides holding a military commission he was also for a time a policeman in the capital. He emigrated to America in 1880, and was here associated with various newspapers, among them Budstikken, Nordvesten, Skandinaven , and Nationaltidende. The last he edited in 1895-1896. In 1901 he started a small monthly in St. Paul called Smuler (Crumbs) in which he gave, in his own characteristic way, his opinions 215 216 Ingrid Semmingsen on 'men and forces' among us. Smuler appeared regularly until 1912. Since then it has been published occasionally. Hervin has a sharp pen. As a writer he possesses a good deal of originality and a great fund of humor."1 It is easy to subscribe to most of what Wist wrote in 1914. In addition it may be possible to put the life and work of Ole S. Hervin into a broader historical perspective in regard both to Norway and to the Norwegian-American milieu. Ole Simensen H verven- Americanized into O. S. Hervin - was the son of a cotter. But his father, born in 1825, was the son of a freeholder. The situation is typical of the social development in the eastern lowlands of rural Norway at the time. Ole's father was one of the many victims of the downward social mobility that resulted mainly from the population pressure caused by decreasing infant and child mortality. Ole's mother was the daughter of a cotter. His parents were not married when Ole was born, nor did they marry until two years later, presumably because they could not afford to do so. This is also typical of the social conditions at the time. By 1865 three more children had been added to the family, according to the census of that year.2 The farm Hverven (today Verva) was one of the largest in the municipality of Stange. According to the census of 1875 seven cotters' houses belonged to the farm. It also had a blacksmith's shop, and Ole's father was the blacksmith. The combination of blacksmith and cotter was not an unusual one in these districts. The occupation of blacksmith gave considerable esteem to a cotter and usually allowed him more favorable terms than the ordinary cotter's contract. The shop must also have been of great value to the farm and its owner. Young Ole was a bright boy. When he was confirmed in September, 1867, at the age of fifteen, the pastor gave him very good marks. He ranked second among the confirmands. Out of a total of twenty boys he was one of nine who scored "very good" both in "knowledge" and in "diligence at work and general behavior."3 Many years later Hervin gave an amusing, ironic, but possibly somewhat romanticized ac- Who Was Herm. Wang? 217 count of how this happened, which also involved an element of social criticism. In this account he praised his teacher in the elementary school as an excellent man who did not pay too much attention to all the baffling questions in the big Pontoppidan catechism, or their complicated answers. But the pastor was different; he...

The Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers of Benjamin Henry Latrobe . Vol. 1: 1784–1804 ed. by John C. Van Horne, Lee W. Formwalt (review)

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 689 sented in these papers. In his supervision of the construction of the Washington Navy Yard and the waterworks of Philadelphia and New Orleans, he introduced steam power for operating sawmills, forges, and block mills. This volume adds substantially to our knowledge on the develop­ ment of early-19th-century science and technology as applied to architecture and engineering. The sixteen illustrations are drawn chiefly from Latrobe’s drawings, and there are several maps relating to his projects. The editors have demonstrated meticulous scholar­ ship, with each entry fully annotated and with ample footnotes and biographical sketches throughout. Silvio A. Bedim The Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers oj Benjamin Henry Latrobe. Vol. 3: 1811—1820. Edited by John C. Van Horne, Jeffrey A. Co­ hen, and Darwin H. Stapleton. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press for the Maryland Historical Society, 1988. Pp. xlv+1,116; illustrations, notes, index. $140.00. The concluding volume of Benjamin Latrobe’s Correspondence in­ cludes documents of considerable value to the history of American architecture, engineering, and material culture. As in previous vol­ umes, the editors follow the middle course of textual presentation, employing standardization appropriate to the typographic medium; their annotation is informative, if at times prolix. The volume reproduces over twenty architectural drawings and views as well as many small drawings and sketches of diverse subjects found within the manuscript texts (none is in color). It is cross-referenced to the comprehensive microfiche edition issued by the Latrobe Papers project in 1976 and to previous volumes in the overall series, notably The Engineering Drawings of Benjamin Henry Latrobe (ed. Darwin H. Stapleton; 1980). The project’s edition of architectural drawings has not yet been published, and thus cross-referencing to it in this volume (with “See BHL, Architectural Drawings"} is much less helpful. Of the 377 documents printed, only twenty-five were not written by Latrobe. In terms of projects, the volume is dominated by his undertaking to build the New Orleans Waterworks, his work in Pittsburgh as “agent” for Robert Fulton’s Ohio Steam Boat Company, and his second campaign as architect at the U.S. Capitol. Although Latrobe’s letters to his wife and his son Henry offer glimpses of the inner man, and several documents are concerned with theory, most of the correspondence deals with the business side of his architectural and engineering practice and related financial ventures. Not surpris­ ingly, there is a good bit of art and self-promotion in these letters, a side to Latrobe that was also visible to his contemporaries. (“What I 690 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE would not give for that masque of yours!” Aaron Burr observes [p. 368].) The volume is filled with complaints and disputes, which will be welcome to historians since few letters written to Latrobe have survived—his sharpest clash, with Fulton, yields important informa­ tion about early steam navigation; differences with architectural rivals and clients elicit useful descriptions of several projects. Beyond the documentation of Latrobe’s work, one gains from this volume and series (thanks to the editors’ decision not to be too selective) a compelling view of “his times.” Latrobe’s progress from project to project, and from one rational if futile business scheme to another, effectively documents the uneven development of the country—full of resources and those eager to exploit them, but lacking the capital, and therefore the ability and will, to sustain ambitious enterprises. Latrobe’s verbal landscape forms a less tranquil companion piece to his invaluable watercolor landscapes, a selection of which were published by this project as Latrobe’s View of America, 1795—1820 (1985). America cruelly shaped Latrobe’s career. It taught him that, while he could expect clients to withhold fees or attempt to pay them in kind, colleagues and rivals to undercut him to gain commissions, business partners to renege on commitments, and federal commis­ sioners to question his every expense in constructing the republic’s most important building, he might make his fortune shoeing horses and repairing pokers and gridirons. He was, in fact, forced to keep a blacksmith shop for a time while in Pittsburgh to provide for his family. Such were...

Settlement Patterns of Logging Camps in the Great Lakes Region

Logging camps in the Great Lakes States experienced enormous changes between the 1840s and the 1940s. Research discloses an almost infinite variety in logging camp arrangements through time. The various buildings oj a camp sometimes stood side by side, other times they formed an “L” or “I” shape and still others were irregularly arranged. The camp buildings displayed increasing functional specialization through time. In the earliest camps a single building might serve for cooking, eating and sleeping. The later camps typically contained separate buildings to serve each of these functions besides a granary, blacksmith shop, van (store), saw filing shed, etc. Not surprisingly, the bunkhouse and the cookhouse or kitchen were always next to each other, as were the barn or stable and the blacksmith shop. Although the camps gradually increased in size during the pine-river drive era, the largest camps were associated with the hardwood-rail era. There was, however, great variation within any period. Whether a ca...

Trace elements in alluvia of the upper Vistula as indicators of palaeohydrology

AbstractIn the Vistula valley near Góra, at the northern foreland of the Carpathians Mountains, there are young alluvia deposited in the historical period. These alluvia are difficult to date precisely because of the lack of organic interbedded material. In the Vistula drainage basin upstream of Góra since the second half of 18th century small centres of metal, textile, motor, and petrochemical industries have been developed. Concentrations of trace elements such as: Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb, and of some macroelements were used as indicators of the age of different alluvial fills. The main part of the Vistula valley floor was built up by sediment accumulation before the development of industry but after the medieval phase of rural colonization of the Carpathians. Deposits filling the abandoned channels dissecting the valley floor have an increased content of some trace elements and deposits date from the second half of the 18th century, when the first foundries and blacksmith's shops were developed. A drastic increase of concentration of the most abundant trace elements in the youngest alluvial fill indicates that the fill dates from the last decade of rapid industrial development.

Book Notices

Journal Article Book Notices Get access RONALD K. HUCH. From Blacksmith Shop to Modem Hospital: The Story of St. Luke's in Duluth, 1881–1981. Duluth, BAH Books, 1983. vi, 114 pp.,illus. $8.00. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Volume 39, Issue 2, April 1984, Pages 232b–233, https://doi.org/10.1093/jhmas/39.2.232b Published: 01 April 1984

Impermanent Architecture in the Southern American Colonies

Impermanent Architecture in the Southern American Colonies

1794 MIDDLETOWN, DELAWARE — FROM ACCOUNTING RECORDS

The economic life, customs and importance of 1794 Middletown, Delaware are interpreted from the accounting ledgers of a general store and a blacksmith shop.

Louis Robidoux: Two Letters From California, 1848

In the spring of 1848 Louis Robidoux wrote two letters to an old friend in New Mexico, Manuel Alvarez. Dated May 1 and June 19, these letters recounted Robidoux's tribulations during the Mexican War, praised the advantages of California over New Mexico, and expressed the hope that California would remain under American rule which Robidoux regarded as synonymous with progress. The letters reveal nothing startling about large events of California history. They are, nevertheless, intrinsically interesting in large part because of the light they shed on Louis Robidoux. A relative late-comer, Robidoux reached California in 1844, but he had already acquired considerable experience on the Mexican frontier. Robidoux had migrated to New Mexico in 1823 when he was some twenty-seven years old.1 There, he and his older and better-known brother, Antoine, made permanent homes in the 1820s and became extraordinarily influential. Louis Robidoux traded in furs, operated a store, blacksmith shop, and grist mill at one time or another. He became a Mexican citizen in 1829, and entered local politics the following year. By 1839 he had become mayor (primer alcalde) of Santa Fe. Why Robidoux left New Mexico for California about 1844 is not clear. Perhaps he was driven out by increasing antiforeign sentiment, some of which was aimed at his controversial brother.2 Or, perhaps he was simply lured to California by stories he had heard of its climate. Certainly, as these letters reveal, Robidoux became an ardent Calif ornian. Whatever the reason for his abandoning New Mexico, by March 1844 Robidoux had arrived in southern California and purchased half of the Rancho Jurupa. An old New Mexico acquaintance, Benjamin Wilson, owned the other half. At Jurupa, on the fertile shores of the Santa Ana River, near what is today Riverside, Robidoux built an adobe house and took up ranching and farming. By 1846 the enterprising, forty-nine year

Old Blacksmith Shops

Old Blacksmith Shops

Good Public Relations Requires Good Public Speakers

Most little girls have the feeling at one time or another that they would like to punch some little boy's nose for him. Sooner or later, they forget about it. All except Melinda. She used to go out of her way to find things to do that would make her strong. Wherever there was hard work to be done, there was Melinda pushing in for more than her share .... until three years ago when Melinda was fifteen. She marched into the one place in town where you have to be strong to do the job and asked for work. It was the town blacksmith shop in San Bernardino, California. The blacksmith thought his ears had gone bad on him. Here was a fifteenyear-old girl asking for a job swinging a sledge hammer. He laughed. Melinda said nothing. She just walked over, picked up one of those sixteen-pound hammers and swatted the shop anvil a ringing, shattering blow. How's that? she asked. She was hired.

New Government Technical School at Takoradi

THE opening of the new Government Technical School at Takoradi introduces a further development of this type of education in the Gold Coast. Increased demand for technical instruction necessitated the removal of the school from Accra, where the accommodation proved to be inadequate. Moreover, the new site is more favourably placed in relation to the industrialized area of the Gold Coast. The new Technical School occupies a prominent site overlooking the sea and Takoradi Harbour, and the more important buildings include a long single-story workshop with blacksmith's shop at the rear, a three-story administration block containing classrooms, laboratories, drawing offices, assembly hall and dining-room and a dormitory block capable of housing one hundred students. The workshop is in two sections, one for practical work in mechanical engineering and the other for practical woodworking. Both sections are fitted with modern electrically driven machinery such as lathes, power drills, shapers, etc., in addition to the usual benches for manual work.

The Water Supply of Saratoga Springs, N. Y.

The settlement of the City of Saratoga Springs dates to about Revolutionary days. I am indebted to Mr. John M. Corey, City Historian, for the description of the original sources of water supply. The City of Saratoga Springs lies on two sides of a valley, the easterly side being of sandy soil and the westerly of limestone rock. On the westerly side of this valley, is a fault in the rock structure, and it is on the easterly side of this fault that all the mineral springs are located. Through this valley runs what is known as the Village Brook (now walled up and used as a surface water carrier). The first water system of which Mr. Corey has any record was obtained from this stream. At the time of its development, the village was divided into two settlemnts, one known as the Upper Village, a settlement adjacent to the High Rock Spring (the first mineral spring discovered) ; the other, known as the Lower Village, consisting of a settlement near another mineral spring, known as the Congress. The history of these various water supplies began between 1820 and 1830, when a dam was constructed over the Village Brook where High Rock Avenue (then known as Willow Walk) joins Lake Avenue, about 300 feet in the rear of City Hall. History states that this dam flooded an area as far back as Old Hodge's blacksmith shop. A wooden flume was built on the lower side of this dam which conveyed the water to an undershot water-wheel, which in turn operated a pump which pumped the water through log pipes to a wooden tank located on the easterly side of Broadway, about 300 feet north of the present City Hall. Water from this tank was conveyed through log pipes to the dwellings in the Upper Village. This simple contrivance, says the historian, was Saratoga's first water supply. Later, Dr. Clark, who owned Congress Spring, built a dam and installed a water-wheel and pump that forced the water into a tall tower, from which it was delivered to the village through log pipes.

On the question of the influence of social and household factors and production on the intellectual development of workers of the blacksmith shop of the Krasnoe Sormovo plant

To clarify the question of the influence of a combination of social and professional factors on the intellectual development of workers, the laboratory of the Institute conducted a psychological experiment on a group of workers of the blacksmith shop of the Krasnoe Sormovo plant numbering 400 people.

Mining loads for central stations

The paper discusses the desirability of mining loads for central stations from the view points of both the mine operators and central station operators. The power supplied to a mine from a central station is used, in general, for haulage, hoisting, ventilation, coal cutting, pumping, tipples, machine shop, blacksmith shop, and general lighting. The power required for each of these services is briefly analyzed, and the types of motors for different services is indicated. The second part of the paper relates to rates for power supplied, and the various methods of rate making, such as flat rates, maximum demand system, flat rate with fixed charge, etc., are analyzed. The effect of power factor on rates and the methods of measurement of load are also considered. The paper concludes with some general suggestions in regard to power contracts.

Mining Loads for Central Stations

The paper discusses the desirability of mining loads for central stations from the view points of both the mine operators and central station operators. The power supplied to a mine from a central station is used, in general, for haulage, hoisting, ventilation, coal cutting, pumping, tipples, machine shop, blacksmith shop, and general lighting. The power required for each of these services is briefly analyzed, and the types of motors for different services is indicated. The second part of the paper relates to rates for power supplied, and the various methods of rate making, such as flat rates, maximum demand system, flat rate with fixed charge, etc., are analyzed. The effect of power factor on rates and the methods of measurement of load are also considered. The paper concludes with some general suggestions in regard to power contracts.