Page:Miscellaneous Papers on Mechanical Subjects.djvu/162

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148
NEW YORK INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION.


It is 400 feet long, 64 feet broad, and contains four stories of from 16 to 13 feet high. The forge shop is 230 feet long, 53 feet wide, and 17 feet high, and contains 32 forges. The foundry is 150 feet long, 90 feet wide, and 22 feet high.


59. Holyoke—Cotton Mills.—Holyoke is a manufacturing town situated on the banks of the Connecticut river.

A short notice of its history will serve to explain the way in which manufacturing companies are established in the United States.

In 1847, a company was formed for the purpose of turning to account the water power supplied by the river Connecticut, buying up the water privileges, and purchasing land to form the site of a manufacturing town.

The company subscribed a capital of $4,000,000, and was incorporated by the State of Massachusetts in 1847. It succeeded in obtaining the water privileges, and upwards of 11,000 acres of land, besides other tracts in the vicinity. A dam, more than 1,000 feet long, was constructed across the river, in the summer of 1849.

The site of a town has been laid out with streets from 60 to 80 feet wide, calculated for a population of 200,000 inhabitants. It contains