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NEWSLETTER |
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Tells History of Fuse Manufacture R.E. Merritt Traces Development of Industry in Talk to Lions History of the manufacture of fuse was related to the Livermore Lions Club Thursday noon by R.E. Merritt of the Coast Manufacturing & Supply Company, who was the guest of C.G. Clarke, chairman of the day. He stated that the history of fuse dated back nearly 100 years, when it was first devised by Wm. Bickford, an English minister of Cornwall, who was actuated by a desire to save lives which were being lost in the Cornish mines through the use of dangerous methods of blasting then employed. He was assisted by Samuel Davie, a blacksmith. In 1836, Robt. Bacon manufactured the first fuse in the United States to supply copper mines in Connecticut, learning from Bickford, the methods he employed. In 1839, fuse was first made in Germany. Until 1867 practically all the fuse was made in the one factory in Connecticut, but in that year the first plant was established on the Pacific Coast, being on the bay shore of Alameda county. It later developed into the present plant of the Coast Manufacturing & Supply Company at Livermore. Mr. Merritt explained the various processes necessary in the making of fuse and detailed the development from the early hand methods to tile present days of automatic machinery, Hand methods prevailed until about 1850, when machinery was introduced, crude at the start but developing into the present fast and efficient processes. Under hand methods, it took several hours to produce 50 feet of what would now be very inferior fuse, while |
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machines now turnout 150 to 175 feet a minute. Chemistry and other modern methods are also important in the production of the present high-grade product, which must undergo rigid tests. The Livermore factory produces 150,000,000 feet of the 850,000,000 manufactured annually in the United States. Mr. Merritt explained the necessity of cooperation in manufacture, and applied the principle to service clubs and other enterprises which must observe it if they are to be successful Excerpted from Livermore Herald, June 10, 1911 President Knox of the Library Trustees has requested the HERALD to announce that the mischief done by boys in the Library Park must cease or the offenders will be prosecuted. The fountain basins are filled with rocks as fast as they can be cleaned out, and rocks have been thrown into the entrance of the library building itself. The stone of the basins and the delicate terrazzo of which the steps have been made are already chipped. The vandalism must be stopped and the parent of the offending children are warned that warrants will be sworn out the their arrest for the next offense. |
Excerpted from Livermore Herald, April 30, 1921 Many Are Attracted Here We learn from the Tracy Press that a May Day picnic is planned for Cresta Blanca by one of the large social clubs of that place. The Sierra Club, the best known outdoor society on the Pacific Coast, with headquarters in San Francisco, will visit this section on May 14th and 15th, when a trip will be made to Cedar Mountain. The party will leave San Francisco Saturday afternoon and camp at Camp 12 on the Mines road Saturday night, and ascend the mountain on Sunday |
  
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Augustt18 2002
