(Excerpt from List of Patterns, Etc. Belonging to the Sout...)
Excerpt from List of Patterns, Etc. Belonging to the South Boston Iron Company A constant supply Of the following articles, among many others, kept on hand. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Cyrus Alger was born on November 11, 1781 at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, United States. He was the son of Abiezer Alger and Hepsibah Keith. His father, a man of sagacity and energy, was prominent in local affairs and successful in business, owning iron foundries in West Bridgewater, Easton, and Titicut.
Alger was partialy preparated for college at the nearby town of Taunton.
Alger entered the iron-foundry business with his father at Easton, where he thoroughly mastered the existing knowledge of that industry. At the solicitation of General Winslow, with whom he formed a partnership, Cyrus Alger moved to South Boston in 1809 and there established an iron-foundry. The partnership was dissolved five years later, but Alger continued in the same business on a new site. The receipt from the government of large orders for cannon-balls during the War of 1812 and the profits derived therefrom ensured the success of the new venture and definitely launched Alger upon a notable career.
At the conclusion of the war his fortunes were further improved by a bold real estate speculation. The South Boston Association (an organization which had taken over the town lands after the annexation of that town to Boston) by building a sea-wall had partly reclaimed the flats lying west of Dorchester Ave. Alger now purchased these lands lying between the North Free Bridge and Fifth St. , being careful that the deed should include all the flats in front of the sea-wall to the channel or low-water mark. Being paid liberally for the rest, the association without hesitation threw in this parcel. Alger now improved the sea-wall, filled in the flats within the wall, laid out roads, built his own factory and house in this section and induced others to do the same. Eventually the flats outside the wall were raised, wharves built, and the section became an important manufacturing and mercantile section. No individual contributed more to the rapid development of South Boston.
Associating himself in 1827 with George C. Thacher, William H. Howard, and Caleb Reed, Alger formed the South Boston Iron Company, built a new plant on Foundry St. , and rapidly extended his works until they became the largest and best-equipped in the United States. He also in 1829, in connection with several capitalists of Halifax, built, near Annapolis, the first smelting furnace in the British provinces, manufacturing the machinery in his South Boston plant and installing it with his own mechanics.
Although Alger thus showed throughout his life unusual executive capacity, he was known quite as widely as an inventor and metallurgist.
Ordnance, in fact, after the War of 1812, was with him a primary interest, and his superior methods of casting iron brought to his foundry so many government contracts that for many years he was chiefly employed in making guns.
His interest in the development of South Boston was unflagging, and the great respect in which he was held by his fellow townsmen made his influence potent.
Alger was one of the best practical metallurgists of his time. For his time Alger was an enlightened employer; he was the first man in South Boston to introduce the ten-hour system, his wages were always paid in cash, and he did not hesitate to put men on half time at some sacrifice to himself in order to ensure continuous employment. His benefactions were many and his private life unblemished. The patent records up to 1839 record at least five inventions to his credit, including a malleable cast-iron plow, a cast-iron cannon, and casting rollers for casting iron. He designed the first cylinder stoves in 1822, and the first gun ever rifled was turned out of his shop in 1834. As a metallurgist he developed a process by which he could purify cast iron so as to give it more than triple the strength of ordinary cast iron, "the process consisting in removing impurities from the metal while in a fluid state and causing it to be much more dense. " He improved the reverberatory furnaces for melting iron and "first introduced and patented the method of making cast iron chilled rolls, by which the part subject to wear should be hard, while the necks remain unchanged as to hardness and strength--these being cast in sand, while the body is cast in a chill, or iron cylinder. " Alger was a co-founder of the South Boston Iron Company. His plant turned out the first perfect bronze cannon ever made for the United States Government and for the State of Massachusetts. He made improvements in the composition of fuses for bombshells and cast the mortar gun, "Columbiad, " the largest gun cast in America up to 1850. The Cyrus Alger Primary school erected in 1881 on West Seventh St. was named after him.
(Excerpt from List of Patterns, Etc. Belonging to the Sout...)
Alger, following the older New England tradition, took an active part in local politics.
Alger was twice married: in 1804 to Lucy Willis, by whom he had seven children; and in 1833 to Mary Pillsbury.
