Factory towns in state spark hope for brighter future

As you head out off New Haven, driving north on what used to be known as the Old College Highway, the street is now called Whitney Avenue; it will bring you to Lake Whitney, about a half-mile outside the city limits. There on the right is a set of very old buildings that we as kids were told was the “Eli Whitney Gun Factory.” In that small cluster of one-story sheds is where Eli Whitney invented the modern manufacturing technique in which he made the parts of his guns interchangeable and standard so they could be made with parts that were mass-produced and then easily assembled.

That seemingly simple invention made manufacturing into a major industry, but it did not replace the cotton gin as the most significant of Whitney’s inventions.

Today we are told of the decline of manufacturing as one of the causes of our current economic travails. And there is little doubt our country has lost much of its former manufacturing business. When I grew up within walking distance of the old Whitney factory, New Haven was the center of a huge gun manufacturing industry. The enormous Winchester gun factory was to the west side of the city while to the east lay the Marlin gun plant, and during the war both those factories turned out arms that were carried to battle by millions of soldiers. And, about 25 miles to the north, in Waterbury, three massive manufacturing companies made brass shells and bullets that also fueled much of our military might in WWII. Such companies as Chase Brass & Copper, Scovill Manufacturing Co. and American Brass were giant suppliers of brass artillery shells and bullet casings. I well remember the loud humming noise one heard as my father drove us by the enormous factories on our trips to visit relatives.

Big manufacturing plants dominated our part of Connecticut and my grandfathers worked in some of them. My maternal grandfather was a skilled metal caster at Scovill’s in Waterbury who poured the mixture of hot metals that turned into brass. The huge fires that cooked the metals must have made the casting shop a literal cauldron and it is no wonder many of the men stopped after work in the numerous bars or “gin-mills” that lined the streets near the factories or “shops” as they were called. When I was told a relative had taken a job in one of the “shops,” I knew just what was meant. My other grandfather worked as a tender to gas-fired water heaters at a large laundry. I have a picture of him with an oilcan in one hand with a large turbine behind him. He made some $25 for a six-day week with the only relief being the hope he might be able to leave work early on Saturday.

Today, the brass mills in Waterbury are gone. The gun factories in New Haven are also gone and the large number of skilled machinists who made solid livings in those shops have disappeared. The legacy of Eli Whitney is buried in the mists of history, and I suspect that most of the people in Whitneyville, or on Whitney Avenue or driving by Lake Whitney have little idea of the reason for the prominence of that name. But Eli Whitney ranks with Edison and Bell as the three great inventors of the pre-atomic era, and the cotton gin and standardized manufacturing process made enormous contributions to the wealth and growth of this country in the 19th century.

When I read of the decline of the manufacturing sector of our economy, I remember how it used to be in the factory towns of old Connecticut. And I hope there are new generations of brilliant engineers and scientists like Eli Whitney who have the talent and genius to come up with the new ideas that will fuel progress. It is unlikely those new ideas will come from government employees and it is very likely the capital to finance such growth will come from private investors.