HARDWARE, a term applied to a large variety of metal goods, especially domestic ironmongery and appliances, hand tools, small metal manufactures such as stoves used in building, garden appliances, etc. Next to food and clothing, hardware is perhaps the chief necessity of humanity. In Britain alone a research into retail sales based upon the actual stock replacements of hardware retailers over a period of six months (Hardware Trade Journal, vol. cxvii., 1924) showed on a conservative basis a turnover of £120,000,000, or approximately L3 per head of the population, per annum. The per head consumption, however, is considerably greater, for there are in addition millions annually spent on builder's hardware for new buildings of all kinds, and by gas and electricity supply undertakings on lighting, cooking and heating appliances which do not come into the retail accounts.
Inventive genius is constantly widening the scope of the trade, and the tendency is specially marked in the multiplicity of modern labour-saving appliances for the house. It is impossible to indicate accurately the relative importance of various sections of the trade, but the furnishing side covers a large part of it.
Birmingham, "the city of a thousand trades," is known the world over as the great hardware metropolis, practically every class being made there. One leading branch is the manufacture of "hollow-ware"--cast-iron, galvanized, enamelled and aluminium products for domestic and other uses. Cast-iron pots are still largely sold both for home and export, but the trade has suffered from the competition of enamelled goods and the newer aluminium ware. A notable development in the enamelled branch has been the introduction of colours. Aluminium hollow-ware—which may be cast, deep-drawn under heavy pressure, or spun from the flat disk of metal—enjoys increasing popularity, on account of its cleanliness, lightness and purity. Cast aluminium ware is the most expensive kind and is largely used for ships and hotel kitchens. The manufacture of hearth suites, curbs and companion sets, and fire screens, is another great industry. New metals and finishes to eliminate labour of cleaning have been adopted ; the goods are made in copper, Grecian bronze, satin brass, oxidized silver and stainless steel. Birmingham is a centre for electroplated ware, and also for brassfoundry.
Cutlery and electroplate trades have been centred in Sheffield for generations. Machine processes and mass production methods are increasingly applied in the cutlery industry. Hand-forged crucible steel blades are still made, but machine processes have been brought to a fine pitch of perfection, and the tradition for quality products is well maintained. The manufacture of stainless steel (q.v.) by Mr. Harry Brearley in the Brown-Firth Research Laboratory prior to the World War, was one of the most far reaching developments in the history of steel; not only has it largely revolutionized the cutlery trade, but it has proved of great value in the engineering and allied industries. Just as pro gress has been recorded in regard to steel for cutlery purposes, so also there have been important developments in subsidiary mate rials. Handles of xylonite are now used for most table knives. Great improvements have been made in precision grinding, and especially in measures for safeguarding the health of the workers engaged in grinding operations. Changes have been made in the razor section. Safety razor blades are produced—millions per week—in the United States, Great Britain and Germany.
In plated goods, an innovation is the use of chromium. Chro mium plating applied to base metal is used not only for flat-ware like spoons and forks, but for hollow-ware, plumbers' fittings, bathroom taps, plugs, and wastes, and other goods for domestic and industrial uses where the "stainless" requisite is desirable.
Willenhall and Wolverhampton are the most important centres for locks and latches. Corrugated iron is largely produced in London, Ellesmere Port, Glasgow and South Wales, and in the West Riding of Yorkshire; metal casements are made in Essex; plumbers' brassfoundry and fittings in various centres, but largely in Birmingham, and screws and nails also in the Midlands. There are still a few hand nail makers in the Black Country, but their output is negligible compared with the production of modern factories. Birmingham's output of screws is over a million per week, and there is a big output also at Leeds. Sheffield manu facturers produce saws and wood-working tools, engineering tools and appliances, tools for road making and agricultural work and garden requisites. In the Midlands there are works devoted to the manufacture of edge tools, and particularly tools for use on plan tations in tropical countries. Agricultural implement making is carried on in Scotland, in the West Riding of Yorkshire and in the Eastern counties; motor lawn mowers and electrically driven lawn mowing machines are among the latest developments in this branch of the industry. The domestic washing machine trade is carried on in Lancashire, Yorkshire and in Glasgow; and Keigh ley (Yorks) is the leading centre of production for laundry machinery. Carpet sweepers and domestic mops are largely pro duced in Lancashire ; and brushes of all kinds at Oldham, St. Albans, London and Wymondham.
An outstanding feature of the hardware trade is its tremendous scope and its varied range of patterns. The best minds in the trade are now directed towards simplification by the elimination of many patterns and sizes. Great progress has already been made in the United States with standardization, through the Division of Simplified Practice, Department of Commerce, Wash ington, and something has been done in Great Britain, largely as a result of the work of the British Engineering Standards Associa tion. A conference on the subject was held at the Board of Trade in 1928. (N. F.) At the beginning of the 19th century this term meant chiefly mechanics' tools and builders' hardware, but, in the United States, it has come to mean all small metal articles used in the construc tion of houses or for household purposes, tools of mechanics' trades, furnishing goods for kitchen and dining room service, tin plate, sheet iron, nails, screws, fence wire, etc. It is not uncom mon for a large hardware house to have in its catalogues nearly 100,00o kinds and sizes of articles. In the early American colonial period supplies were brought from the mother countries of Eu rope. As the colonies assumed a definite shape, the village black smith established the foundation of American hardware manufac ture, by making bars for doors, tools and implements for agricul ture. But greater development was both necessary and desirable due to the isolation of the colonies and the finding of coal and minerals in great abundance. Small home manufacture grew up to supply local demands, but the greatest part of the manufactured goods were imported. Immigrants brought their own tools, the patterns of which were at once copied and improved. Village blacksmiths in Connecticut and thereabouts began to make farm implements and simple hand tools about 185o, and in 186o Ameri can manufacturers began to pull trade away from competitors by virtue of higher quality goods. Labour-saving machinery was introduced later and foreign-made articles could not compete.
The hardware-manufacturing industry had its beginnings in New England. The business gradually spread into the middle Atlantic States, especially New York and Pennsylvania. In the latter part of the 19th century New York became the undisputed centre of the trade. Here were located the majority of the great importing houses, and here also were founded and flourished the jobbers who distributed to the retail trade. With the growth of the country new advance manufacturing centres were created, and New York was no longer the pre-eminent trade centre. Since 1875 the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan have been large producers. More recently Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota also have been important manufacturers of hardware.
Builders', cabinet and furniture hardware, which includes trim mings such as knobs, handles, pulls, hinges and lock supports and such kindred items, and cabinet, desk, draw, sewing machine, phonograph and piano locks, are manufactured in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Illinois and in several of the New England States, particularly Connecticut. Shelf hardware and padlocks are also made in the New England States, as well as in Pennsylvania and New York. Piano hardware is another group of products made largely in New England. Tools for working in wood, such as hammers, chisels, saws, planes, augers, in fact a complete line of carpenters' and cabinet-makers' tools, are produced in the New England States, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio, which are known also for their excellent hand and power saws. Most screws are produced in Rhode Island and Connecticut. Modern trends in furniture have led to new designs in hardware trimmings for interiors, mostly in chrome finish. (W. H. SIE.)