User:Gatoclass/SB/Novelty Iron Works
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The Novelty Iron Works, commonly known as the Novelty Works, was a major 19th-Century American engineering firm located in Manhattan, New York. Established in about 1830, the Works grew rapidly until by 1850 it was reportedly the largest ironworks in the United States. The company manufactured iron castings of every description, but specialized in the production of marine steam engines and other marine fittings, particularly for oceangoing steamships and other large and demanding contracts. Other notable manufactures produced by the company included sugar mill equipment, fire engines, and Francis lifeboats—the latter credited with saving thousands of lives in the 19th century.
Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Manufacturing |
Founded | About 1830, as H. Nott & Co. |
Founder | Eliphalet Nott |
Defunct | 1870 |
Fate | Dissolved |
Headquarters | , |
Key people | Horatio Allen, President |
Products | Marine and other steam engines, boilers, sugar mill equipment, lifeboats, fire engines and other iron products |
Revenue | $1,330,000 (1855) |
Total assets | $450,000 (1850) |
Number of employees | 1,200–1,500 (1855–1860s) |
The Novelty Works built the engines for many of the most notable American steamships of the mid-19th century. Ships engined by the Novelty Works included Southerner and Northerner—the first clearly successful American merchant steamships—Washington and Hermann, the first two American transatlantic steamers; the Collins Line steamers Arctic, Atlantic and Adriatic; and many of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company's early vessels.