WIRE.

Washburn & Moen Manufacturing Co.-The wire manufactory of the Washburn & Moen Corporation maintains in the year 1898 the place it has held during the half century as the largest single industrial enterprise in Worcester. This great establishment, which gives employment to 4,000 persons, and indirectly supports several times that number, is the outcome of the small beginning made in 1831 by Ichabod Washburn, who, in company with Benjamin Goddard, entered into the manufacture of wire in a wooden building at Northville, occupied in part by C. Read & Company, makers of wood screws, whom Mr. Washburn had induced to come to Worcester from Providence and set up their business. It was in connection

with screw-making that Mr. Washburn produced his first wire, and successfully meeting the requirements of this trade he very soon turned his attention to the manufacture of wire for other and more general purposes, especially for cotton and woolen cards.

Three-quarters of a century ago wire was drawn by hand process, the best workmen producing only from fifteen to twenty-five pounds each per day. Previous to the year 1831 a large proportion of the wire used in the United States was imported from England, at a lower price than it could be made with the rude American appliances. Mr. Washburn saw the advantage that would result if the home product could be made to equal foreign wire in quality and cheapness, and his mechanical and inventive genius enabled him to overcome certain difficulties which stood in the way of success. With the adoption and perfection of the draw-block, and the bringing into use from time to time as the exigencies required of other appliances and methods, the business steadily increased until, within a little more than a quarter of a century, the undertaking assumed such proportions as to achieve the distinction of being the largest wire manufactory in the world. In 1835 Mr. Washburn dissolved partnership with Mr. Goddard, and removed from Northville to a new building erected for him on Mill Brook by the late Honorable Stephen Salisbury, who also constructed a dam, forming Salisbury pond. This building, 80 x 40 feet, three stories high, was the nucleus of the present extensive Grove street works. About 1840 Mr. Washburn bought and occupied the South Worcester property, in recent years operated by the Worcester Wire Company, and before 1850 the Quinsigamond location was acquired. During this period Charles Washburn, a brother of Ichabod, was in partnership in the business, the firm name being I. & C. Washburn; and later a new company was formed known as Washburn, Moen & Company, Henry S. Washburn and Philip L. Moen being the new partners. Through various changes this concern became in 1869 the Washburn & Moen Manufacturing Company, with a capital of $1,000,000, and authority to increase the amount to $1,500,000.

From wire for card-teeth and other common varieties, the output of the establishment was probably first greatly increased by the demand for telegraph wire in 1847 and later. In 1850 the manufacture of piano wire was attempted, and the Worcester product soon superseded the English wire in