Novelty Iron Works

Last updated
Novelty Iron Works at foot of 12th Street on the East River of Manhattan (1841-44) Novelty Iron works, Foot of 12th St. E.R. New York. Stillman, Allen & Co., Iron Founders, Steam Engine and General Machinery Manufacturers MET DT201335.jpg
Novelty Iron Works at foot of 12th Street on the East River of Manhattan (1841-44)
Iron clad steam-ship Roanoke The first turretted frigate in the US in 1863, sitting here to the right of the Novelty Works US Iron Clad steam-ship Roanoke The first Turretted Frigate in the US 1863 RMG PU6209.jpg
Iron clad steam-ship Roanoke The first turretted frigate in the US in 1863, sitting here to the right of the Novelty Works

The Novelty Iron Works was an ironworking firm founded to make boilers in New York City, located on East 12th street in Manhattan. [1] The founder was the Rev. Eliphalet Nott President of Union College of Schenectady, New York. Eliphalet Nott had invented a boiler and established the works to commercialize his invention. Among the first boilers was used to provide steam for his pleasure boat named the Novelty. This was used to demonstrate the boiler and so the community referred to it as the Novelty Iron Works. It was however registered as the firm of H. Knott & Company. The works was reorganized first as the firm of Ward Stillman & Co. then Stillman, Allen & Co. from 1842 until 1855 with the recruitment of Horatio Allen. In 1855 it was incorporated under its common name and continued operating until 1870. Although they were not the largest principals, the family of Eliphalet Nott long continued involvement in the ironworks as ownership changed through different firms. [2]

As the only New York City firm capable of producing large scale bent iron plates in the 1860s, Novelty Iron Works was contracted to produce the turret for the ironclad U.S.S. Monitor, which was constructed and launched at nearby Continental Iron Works in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. [3] [4]

Related Research Articles

USS <i>Monitor</i> First ironclad of the US Navy, 1861–1862

USS Monitor was an ironclad warship built for the United States Navy during the American Civil War and completed in early 1862, the first such ship commissioned by the Navy. Monitor played a central role in the Battle of Hampton Roads on 9 March under the command of Lieutenant John L. Worden, where she fought the casemate ironclad CSS Virginia to a stalemate. The design of the ship was distinguished by its revolving turret, which was designed by American inventor Theodore Timby; it was quickly duplicated and established the monitor class and type of armored warship built for the American Navy over the next several decades.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Ericsson</span> United States engineer

John Ericsson was a Swedish-American inventor. He was active in England and the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Hampton Roads</span> 1862 naval battle in the American Civil War, the first between ironclads

The Battle of Hampton Roads, also referred to as the Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack or the Battle of Ironclads, was a naval battle during the American Civil War.

<i>Stourbridge Lion</i> Railroad steam locomotive built in 1829

The Stourbridge Lion was a railroad steam locomotive. It was the first locomotive and the first foreign built locomotive to be operated in the United States, and one of the first locomotives to operate outside Britain. It takes its name from the lion's face painted on the front, and Stourbridge in England, where it was manufactured by the firm Foster, Rastrick and Company in 1829. The locomotive, obtained by the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company (D&H), was shipped to New York in May 1829, where it was tested raised on blocks. It was then taken to Honesdale, Pennsylvania for testing on the company's newly built track. The locomotive performed well in its first test in August 1829, but was found to be too heavy for the track and was never used for its intended purpose of hauling coal wagons. During the next few decades, a number of parts were removed from the abandoned locomotive until only the boiler and a few other components remained. These were acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1890 and are currently on display at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eliphalet Nott</span> American academic

Eliphalet Nott, was a famed Presbyterian minister, inventor, educational pioneer, and long-term president of Union College, Schenectady, New York.

USS <i>Roanoke</i> (1855) Merrimack-class screw frigate

USS Roanoke was a wooden-hulled Merrimack-class screw frigate built for the United States Navy in the mid-1850s. She served as flagship of the Home Squadron in the late 1850s and captured several Confederate ships after the start of the American Civil War in 1861. The ship was converted into an ironclad monitor during 1862–63; the first ship with more than two gun turrets in history. Her conversion was not very successful as she rolled excessively and the weight of her armor and turrets strained her hull. Her deep draft meant that she could not operate off shallow Confederate ports and she was relegated to harbor defense at Hampton Roads, Virginia for the duration of the war. Roanoke was placed in reserve after the war and sold for scrap in 1883.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allen Wright</span> Ninteenth century Choctaw chief

Allen Wright was Principal Chief of the Choctaw Republic from late 1866 to 1870. He had been ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1852 after graduating from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He was very active in the Choctaw government, holding several elected positions. He has been credited with the name Oklahoma for the land that would become the state.

USS <i>Neshaminy</i>

USS Neshaminy was a large and powerful 3,850-ton screw frigate with a length of 335 feet that was under construction at the Philadelphia Navy Yard when she was surveyed by Navy officials who found her construction work to be poor. Construction was halted by the Navy, which eventually sold her for scrap.

USS <i>Princeton</i> (1851) Gunboat of the United States Navy

USS Princeton was a large 1,370-ton steamer with powerful guns, some of whose timbers were those from the first USS Princeton, the U.S. Navy's first screw steam warship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willamette Iron and Steel Works</span> Defunct manufacturing company in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

Willamette Iron Works was a general foundry and machine business established in 1865 in Portland, Oregon, originally specializing in the manufacture of steamboat boilers and engines. In 1904, the company changed its name to Willamette Iron and Steel Works, under which name it operated continually until its close in 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bridgewater Iron Works</span> United States historic place

The Bridgewater Iron Works is a historic industrial site located on High Street in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, United States, along the banks of the Town River. Previously known as Lazell, Perkins and Company, by the mid-19th century, the Bridgewater Iron Manufacturing Company was one of the largest iron works in the United States, specializing in heavy castings and forgings. The property was later acquired by the Stanley Works, with the surrounding village still known to this day as Stanley.

John Flack Winslow was an American businessman and iron manufacturer who was the fifth president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornelius H. DeLamater</span> Historic house in New York, United States

Cornelius Henry DeLamater was an industrialist who owned DeLamater Iron Works in New York City. The steam boilers and machinery for the ironclad USS Monitor were built in DeLamater's foundry during the Civil War. Swedish marine engineer and inventor John Ericsson considered DeLamater his closest, most intimate friend.

The Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works was a major late-19th-century American shipyard located on the Delaware River in Chester, Pennsylvania. It was founded by the industrialist John Roach and is often referred to by its parent company name of John Roach & Sons, or just known as the Roach shipyard. For the first fifteen years of its existence, the shipyard was by far the largest and most productive in the United States, building more tonnage of ships than its next two major competitors combined, in addition to being the U.S. Navy's largest contractor. The yard specialized in the production of large passenger freighters, but built every kind of vessel from warships to cargo ships, oil tankers, ferries, barges, tugs and yachts.

Howard Potter was an American industrialist, investment banker, diplomat and philanthropist, and a partner in Brown Bros. & Co.

The Union Iron Works was a shipbuilding and engineering firm in Carondelet, St. Louis, Missouri, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horace See</span> American engineer

Horace See was an American mechanical engineer, marine engineer, naval architect, inventor, and superintendent. He is known as principal naval architect at the William Cramp & Sons shipyard in Philadelphia, and as president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in the year 1888–89.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Continental Iron Works</span> American shipbuilding and engineering company

The Continental Iron Works was an American shipbuilding and engineering company founded in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, in 1861 by Thomas F. Rowland. It is best known for building a number of monitor warships for the United States Navy during the American Civil War, most notably the first of the type, USS Monitor. Monitor's successful neutralization of the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia in the 1862 Battle of Hampton Roads—the world's first battle between ironclad warships—would come to heavily influence American naval strategy both during and after the war.

Henry R. Dunham was an American engineer and machinist. He was known for designing and manufacturing steam engines, most notably the Dunham Engine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas F. Rowland</span> American engineer and shipbuilder

Thomas Fitch Rowland was an American engineer and shipbuilder. In 1861, he founded the Continental Iron Works in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, which built ironclad warships for the United States Navy during the American Civil War, most notably USS Monitor, which successfully neutralized the threat from the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia in the Battle of Hampton Roads in 1862.

References

  1. Morgan, Bill (19 October 2013). The Civil War Lover's Guide to New York City. ISBN   9781611211238.
  2. Kenneth J. Blume: Historical Dictionary of the U.S. Maritime Industry: Novelty Iron Works
  3. Still, William N. Jr. (1988). Monitor Builders: A Historical Study of the Principal Firms and Individuals Involved in the Construction of USS Monitor. Washington, D.C.: Department of the Interior. p. 24. hdl:2027/umn.31951p00916769o. OCLC   679857829.
  4. Thompson, Stephen C. (1990). "The Design and Construction of the USS Monitor". Warship International. XXVII (3): 229, 234–237. ISSN   0043-0374.