. The Cambridge of eighteen hundred and ninety-six . , William W. Robertson, P. A. Pederson, and Lee L. Powers,makers of cabinet work. MISCELLANEOUS MANUFACTURES. BOSTON WOVEN HOSE AND RUBBER 1870 Lyman R. Blake, the inventor of the original sole sewingmachine, so successfully exploited by Gordon McKay, long a citizenof Cambridge, devisec\ a machine for sewing up strips of rubber-coatedcanvas into hydraulic hose. This machine was shortly afterward pur-chased by Colonel Theodore A. Dodge, who, having been placed on theretired list of the army, had taken up his residence in Cambrid
. The Cambridge of eighteen hundred and ninety-six . , William W. Robertson, P. A. Pederson, and Lee L. Powers,makers of cabinet work. MISCELLANEOUS MANUFACTURES. BOSTON WOVEN HOSE AND RUBBER 1870 Lyman R. Blake, the inventor of the original sole sewingmachine, so successfully exploited by Gordon McKay, long a citizenof Cambridge, devisec\ a machine for sewing up strips of rubber-coatedcanvas into hydraulic hose. This machine was shortly afterward pur-chased by Colonel Theodore A. Dodge, who, having been placed on theretired list of the army, had taken up his residence in Cambridge, andthe manufacture of Blake hose was begun. At first the article produced was acceptable rather from its cheap-ness than from its solidity ; and although the original somewhat flimsygarden hose gradually grew into engine hose really excellent and dur-able, and although the one place in the hose which never gave out was 1 The reader is indebted for this interesting description of the WovenHose Co. to Colonel Theodore Ayrault Dodge. — Mm WOVEN HOSE AND RUBBER CO. 367 the line of stitches, the public was apt to look askance at the seam,and the article was not a favorite. When, therefore, in 1872, James E. Gillespie approached ColonelDodge with the drawings of a loom to weave multiply-tubular fabrics,the latter was quick to grasp its possibilities. Theretofore tubulargoods had been woven only on flat looms, a process which left a weakspot along their edge. It had been impossible to beat up goodswoven in the round form so as to make them sufficiently solid, andonly braided round fabrics had been used. As a first construction,Gillespies loom was remarkable, but its eighty thousand parts madeit all too liable to break down. To assist Gillespie, Colonel Dodge, in1873, hired a young machinist named Robert Cowen, and from thatyear on until to-day, when he is vice-president of the company andsuperintendent of a factory where a thousand men and women areworking day and night
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