Point Shirley Works, Revere Copper Company
Joseph Warren Revere |
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Joseph Warren Revere (1777 - 1868) was the co-founder of the Revere Copper Company in 1801 with his father, Paul Revere. He became president of the company when his father retired in 1811. He was largely responsible for the success of the business.
"In 1844 Joseph Warren Revere also spearheaded the establishment at Point Shirley, Massachusetts, of a large manufacturing complex that could smelt and refine copper, to maximize the supply available for manufacturing. The vast complex included eight blast furnaces and eight reverberatory furnaces and used the 'German' process to refine copper ore imported from abroad via a fuel-intensive but labor saving system."
"In 1844 Revere operations were broadened and strengthened with the establishment of the Point Shirley works for refining copper ore. It was the first American plant to employ the Continental process and marked an important step in the history of copper metallurgy in the United States. Point Shirley was a promontory in Boston Harbor five miles from the city. The area, which covered nearly six acres, was favorably situated since it faced the water on three sides. The wharf was capable of docking and unloading the largest ore-Iadened vessels from South America, Chile in particular, which had become an important source of are. Once roasted at Point Shirley, the copper was taken to Canton for firing in the four furnaces there. The Point Shirley plant helped to keep Revere & Son in copper for twenty-eight years.
After nearly thirty years of successful operation the Point Shirley Works were "legislated" out of existence, as a result of the tariff placed on foreign ores in 1868. Deprived of foreign are, the works operated for several years on the limited supply of domestic are but were forced to shut down in 1872. This was before the vast are deposits in Arizona, Utah, Montana, Michigan and elsewhere in the United States had been tapped to give us a metal supremacy."
'The Canton plant owned by Paul Revere and Son originally, supplied the firm with copper for fabrication by rolling ingots of the metal but this was an expensive method of obtaining the basic material. ... The Company looked about for a site which would be suitable in that the fumes would escape without harm and also for a site to which the ore could be cheaply transported. At the time, copper ore was largely imported from Chile and other South American countries, for the American copper mines had not then been discovered. This meant that the site of the smelter should be on deep water so the ships from South America could unload directly into the smelter cars. Point Shirley offered all these advantages, for the sulphurous. fumes would "be blown out to sea" and the water at the harbor side of the Point, near the foot of Shirley Street, was then deep enough to float ocean-going sailing ships.
So in 1844, the Revere Copper Company agreed to buy most of Point Shirley."
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