COPPER AND BRASS INDUSTRY. The Naugatuck River has its sources in the hills of northwestern Connecticut and flows southward about 40 miles to its junction with the Housatonic River at Derby, taking its course through a narrow, winding valley. From Torrington, at the head of the valley, to Derby there is a fall of about 600 feet, and wherever the valley broadens to give room for a village or a city there are water privileges, and the power is utilized for manufacturing purposes.
In this narrow valley, which contains a large population, evidence of- thrift and prosperity is everywhere seen in the neat, comfortable homes of the workingmen and the fine houses of their employers. This is the seat of the brass-rolling industry of America. Many large corporations are here directly engaged in this business, pro ducing about three-fourths of the total quantity of rolled brass manufactured in the United States, giving direct employment to 25,000 per sons and indirectly to many thousands more. About one-half the total quantity of copper consumed in the rolling and wire mills of the United States is conveyed annually to the Naugatuck Valley for use in these manufac turing establishments.
Here were found the men of foresight, energy and activity who could originate great enterprises and carry them to completion. They began the brass-rolling industry 70 years ago. Its development and progress with the growth of the country are due to the energ.y and ability of those who have conducted the business and furnished the necessary capital for its enlarge ment. The causes that have led to the con centration of this industry in the Naugatuck Valley are more complex. The cheap power afforded by the water privileges .in the valley undoubtedly led to the establishment there of the first rolling-mills, which, as they increased in size and capacity, finally out the water power and are at the present rywoperated by steam or by steam and water-power together.
The mills originally established in the valley have enlarged and extended from time to time to keep pace with the growing demand for brass. According to the general law governing the concentration of kindred industries and trades in particular localities, new mills were started there, even after the water power had ceased to be a determining factor in the problem of location. Other advantages, such as the
cheapness and accessibility of wood of the variety best suited for annealing purposes, were among the causes that held the trade in the valley. Then, too, there arose a race of work men skilled from generation to generation in the mixing, rolling and manipulation of brass; and as time went on and competition increased, the production of rolled metal becoming less profit able, many of the rolling-mills began remanu facturing their own metal. Other corporations were formed, some being direct offshoots from the brass mills, until the location became what it is to-day; a great centre for the reworlring and consumption of metal. There are many reasons why it is desirable that a brass-mill should not be too far from the place where its product is chiefly consumed, and thus it happens that, while a few brass manufactories are operated in other parts of the country, the Naugatuck Valley still is and probably will remain the seat of the brass-rolling industry in America. Other enterprises, such as the rolling of iron and steel, thrive best where their raw material, their fuel and labor are cheapest and most accessible, transportation, labor and fuel being great factors in the cost of the product; but the brass manufacturer, working a high priced raw material, and bringing his finished product to the point of nicety in gauge and quality, finds the cost of labor, fuel and trans portation factors of less importance relatively, and he is governed largely by other considera tions in his choice of locality. Therefore, while the shifting centres of the manufacture of iron and steel are marked throughout the country by abandoned furnaces, the seat of the brass rolling industry remains to-day where it was established nearly a century ago, it being a noteworthy fact that nearly all of the mills outside of the State of Connecticut were constructed or are operated by Connecticut men.