Silk-worm culture was proposed by James I. on the settlement of Virginia, and that monarch sent supplies of silk-worms' eggs to the colony from his private stores. Intact, more or less silk was raised in all the colonies. In 1788 the president of Yale college wore at commencement a silk gown made from materials raised and woven in Connec ticut. A piece manufactured from silk raised near Charleston, S. C., in 1755, was made into three dresses, one of which was presented to the princess dowager of Wales, another to lord Chesterfield, and a third to Mrs. Harvey of South Carolina, in the possession of whose family it still remains. In 1837 the manufacture of silk in the United States received a powerful impulse from a report of the congressional committee on manufac tures in favor of this industry. It was stated that one specimen of the 771.01'11.9 ?MilliGallia. or mulberry, would sustain a sufficient number of silk-worms to raise 120 lbs. of silk, worth $640. Attention was directed to this industry in nearly all the states, and a coa dition of excitement occurred which became intensified by the promise of large fortunes. In the following year this excitement culminated in a degree perhaps never equaled by any similar movement, except the great "tuber" or bulb excitement in Holland and England. Single mulberry-trees sold at $10, nurseries were established and did a thriv ; ing business, and thousands of persons invested in the new speculation, Two years later a revulsion of interest occurred. Most cf the nurseries were abandoned or destroyed, and morus rnulticaulis trees, healthy and well-brauched, were offered at three cents each without finding buyers. See &LK.
The manufacture of ladies' shoes began early in colonial times, and the town of Lynn, Mass., has been distinguished for this branch of industry almost from the time of its settlement. The first shoemakers in Lynn were established in 1635, and the first shoes made by thern were of woolen cloth or neat leather only. Until 1800 shoes were made with wooden heels, covered with leather, but after that time leather heels were substi tuted. The first invention of importance in this manufacture was the pegging machine; the next was the last-machine invented by Elias Howe. Another important invention was the :McKay sewing machine, for stitching the uppers and soles together. In 1870 Lynn produced 187,530 cases of boots and shoes, of 60 pairs each, being 11,250,000 pairs, valued at $17,000,000. An important manufacture, and one which is now more than a century old in the United States, is that of combs. These were at first imported from England by the colonists, but in 1759 au iron comb manufactory was in‘existence at West Newbury, Mass., where the business is still extensively conducted. In the same year there was a comb manufactory in Pennsylvania, and in 1793 one in Boston, and two or three in Leominster, Mass. The first machine for making combs was patented by Isaac Tryon in 1798. In 1809 three manufactories were established in Connecticut. At first the teeth were cut singly by a fine steel saw; but in 1814 a patent was granted for a machine which cut all the teeth at one operation. The invention of vulcanized India rubber effected a revolution in the comb manufacture. An important manufacture is that of the cards used in the manufacture of cotton and woolen cloths. Dwing the colonial period these cards were manufactured by hand-labor; and in that form their making continued to be a valuable branch of industry until the latter part of the 18th century. In 1777 Oliver Evans invented a machine for making cards, which is said to have produced them at the rate of 300 a minute. In 1784 another machine was invented which cut and bent the teeth, and had a capacity of 86,000 an hour. Cannon and can non-balls were cast in Massachusetts as early as 1664. In 1748 a foundry at Bridgewater, Mass., inade from 3 to 42 pounder guns; and during the revolution, cannon, cannon-balls, and shells were made in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Penn sylvania, and Maryland. Up to 1857 about 300,000 cannon had been cast in the United States. The manufacture of Avall-paper did not be„.crin in the United States until 1765,
and in 1789 a production of 46,000 pieces per month in Philadelphia was considered a fair quantity. The first patterns with glazed grounds were made in 1824, but soon after the best French designs began to be imitated. The manufacture of iron was naturally one of the earliest industries practiced in the colonies. In 1620 there were iron-works at Falling Creek, in the Jamestown, Va., settlement, but the following year the place was attacked by Indians, and the inhabitants massacred, which stopped the manufacture of iron in that locality, and it was not resumed there until 1712. The first iron manufac tory in Massachusetts was set up in Lynn about 1663, the village about the works being named Hammersmith, after the place of the same name in England, whence many of the workmen employed there had emigrated. The first article of iron said to have been cast in the American colonies was made at these works, being a small iron pot capable of holding about a quart. In 1750 there were in existence in the colonies 3 iron-mills and one furnace. The description of a furnace erected in 1794 in the town of Carver, Mass., mentions that 10 forges were there employed in making bar iron from scraps to the amount of 200 tons annually. Another of the early colonial industries was the manu facture of cordage, and as early as 1631 it was made in Boston, and in Charlestown, Mass., in 1662; in 1698 there were several rope-walks in Philadelphia; and in 1794 Vir giuia mid Maryland had each more rope-walks than any two of the northern and eastern states. In 1804 a spinning and twisting mill for making cordage was patented in the I United States. The first paper-mill in America of which we have any account was erected at Roxborough, near Germantown, in Pennsylvania, about 1693. This was 50 years after printing had been introduced into the colonies, but only or 6 years after a proclamation had been issued by the English government for the establishment of the first manufactory of white paper in England. The paper-mill in question was built by an ancestor of David Rittenhouse—whose family in Holland had long been engaged in the manufacture of paper—and William Bradford. the first printer in Philadelphia. In 1728 Bradford, when government printer in New York, owned a paper-mill in Elizabeth town, N. J., which was probably the second one erected in the colonies. Benjamin Franklin was, at various times, interested in the erection of 18 paper-mills. In 1787 there were 63 mills in operation in all the states.. It.is said that the first manufacture known to American history was that of salt,.which was undertaken by the colonists at Jamestown, Va., in 1620. The first mill set up in New England was a wind-mill, near Watertown, Mass., which was taken down in 1633 and erected on Copp's hill in Boston. In New York the first mill was a horse-mill,.which was built in 1626 on the site now 'occupied by Trinity church in that city. Agricultural implements were not made in America until a comparatively recent period. One of the first persons to make a plow was Thomas Jefferson, who attempted to solve the mathematical problem of the true surface of the mold-board, and in 1793 had several plows made after his patterns, which he uscd on his estates in Virginia. The first American, after Mr. Jefferson, who made plows for common use was a farmer living in New Jersey, by the name of Charles New bold, who invented the first castiron plow made in America. The manufacture of beer was undertaken in the very earliest history of the colonies. One John Appleton set up the first malt-house in Massachusetts in 1640. In 1633 Wouter Van Twiller caused the erection of a brewery in New York city. The distillation of brandy coinmenced in the colonies in 1640. Wine was made in Virginia from the native grape by French colo nists, who came over for the purpose, before 1622. In New England governor Winthrop planted a vineyard as early as 1630, and Governor's island, in Boston harbor, was granted for this purpose in 1634.