File:The world's opportunities and how to use them (1887) (14590944860).jpg

Identifier: worldsopportunit00guer (find matches)
Title: The world's opportunities and how to use them
Year: 1887 (1880s)
Authors: Guernsey, Alfred H. (Alfred Hudson), 1824-1902
Subjects: Industries
Publisher: New York, Harper & brothers
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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inst 3.9 in 1870. Butthis increase in the average number of hands does not alone explain the de-crease in the number of establishments. We have also to take into accountthe effect of the growth of the sash, door, and blind factories, doing on a largescale, and by the aid of machinery, what was formerly done slowly on the spotby the individual carpenter. We have then to take into account the growth ofthe wheelwright trade. In 1870 there were 3613 establishments, employing anaggregate of 6989 hands; in 1880 there were 10,701 establishments, employing16,108 hands. We have next to take into account the introduction of machin-ery into the furniture and cabinet-making industry, replacing much of the for-mer work of the local carpenter in rural districts and small towns. We have to consider the immense extension of the contract-system oferecting buildings, the effect of which is to disconnect an increasing proportionof the working carpenters of every city or large town from actual shops, and
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MANUFACTURES AND MECHANICS. 309 constitute them a movable, readily disposable force, to be hired now by thiscontractor and now by that, according as jobs arise. We have last to considerthe rapid substitution of brick and stone for building, evidenced by the factthat the number of persons employed in the manufacture of brick in the UnitedStates has increased more than 50 per cent, in ten years. In the same way, while the cross-roads blacksmith-shop is still a necessityfor tens of thousands of localities, very much of the work formerly done by theblacksmiths is now done on a larger scale by wheelwrights, locksmiths, or ma-chinists, or in hardware factories or establishments producing numerous spe-cialties in iron and steel. . . . Space will not allow us to take up trade aftertrade to indicate the conditions which have affected its rate of growth duringthe decade just passed, but the foregoing will serve to show the variety andthe nicety of the considerations which require to be taken in

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