The Blanchard House Blog

After a week hiatus, Henry Robinson resumed his journaling on June 7^th.

7^th June 1862—Clinton

Paid fare to Lawrence on business for J.R.R. $1.40.

Arrd. at L. 11 ½ A.M. boarded with V.G. Baleon 94 Essex St.

Mill is below the Spricket

2 boilers—loaned J.R. $3.00

Munroe has been burning 2000 lb. coal to day 3000 lb. paper.

8^th Sunday

Heard Rev. [blank] of Lawrence St. Church in A.M., Dea. [blank] in Sabbath school.

Rev. Mr. Fenny at Central chch. In P.M. & at concert. New American Cyclopedia purchased by the S. School.

9^th

3 masons at work on the setting—several tenders worked all day.

10^th June 1862—Lawrence Mass

3 masons at work on setting also several tenders worked all day.

11^th

Tested Munroe’s boiler to 85 lbs.—leaked a little on top—in two seams. Went into boilers & found it sealed badly—old sints remained from the paneling several years ago.

Masons finished.

Got the grates in.

Worked 1 ½ days

12^th

Started fire about 8 P.M. Had to build wood fire in flue to start smoke up chimney.

Worked 1 day 2 hours

13^th June Lawrence

Ran Munroe’s boiler enough to dry the clay on top.

Packed lower head of heater & commenced attaching pipes to it—worked all day.

14^th

Got heater connected & got steam into it. Got Wildus grates in & water running in—Her’s boiler was not so dirty as Munroe’s.

Left mill for home at 3 ¼ P.M. got started from Lawrence about 3-35” and in Lowell 5 minutes too late for train. Paid fare to Boston .45

Went to Old Harbor Wharf So. Boston

After meandering his ways through the shipyards of the Union, Henry is finally home and back at his civilian occupation: being a mill engineer. Nowadays, becoming an engineer requires four years of college and a bachelor’s degree. Henry’s engineering education did not conform to modern requirements.

Henry was born and reared on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee in what is now Laconia, New Hampshire. He attended the local schoolhouse and then Gilford Academy before leaving home in 1847 at the age of 16 to become an assistant engineer at Hamilton Manufacturing Co. in Lowell, a company known for their bright calico fabric. 158 years before the Hamilton mill was turned into 65 loft-style apartments, Henry learned the intricacies of steam engines here.

A label that was attached to every bolt of cloth sold by the Hamilton Manufacturing Company of Lowell, where Henry was Assistant Engineer from 1847-1849.

It didn’t take long for Henry to move up the ranks; in 1849 he became the head engineer at York Mills in Saco, Maine, one of the largest cotton milling complexes in the country at that time. He stayed employed in Maine until 1855, when he moved 100 miles south to Clinton, Massachusetts to join his brother as a consultant engineer.

His brother was James Ramsey Robinson, the J.R.R. who Henry loaned three dollars to and went “on business for”. Henry worked for James, apart from his stints in the military, until 1864. It was during this fraternal partnership, in June of 1862, that Henry went to this mill “below the Spicket” to examine and fix two boilers—Munroe’s and Her’s. The job took Henry nearly a week’s work to complete.

Boiler’s were necessary to a mill’s operation because they created the steam needed to power the steam engine and in turn the cloth-making machines. It is worth noting that steam engine technology and application was rapidly changing during Henry’s time.  In the 1700s, most mills were powered by water wheels, forcing them to be built on rivers. Steam engines began to be used in the late 1700s to pump water back over the water wheel.

A Corliss Steam Engine, not unlike the kind Henry might have been repairing the boiler for in Lawrence in 1862.

In 1849 George Corliss patented an engine with variable timing valves that had 30% better thermal efficiency than any existing steam engine. This increased efficiency made it economically viable to do away with the water wheel and power the equipment directly with the engine. Much in the same way steam power was making sail power obsolete in the Navy, steam power was finally making water power obsolete in mills after working together complimentarily for decades.

Henry’s work with boilers foreshadowed his later success: Henry would go on to found Robinson Boiler Works after the war, a very profitable company which made boilers for many of New England’s mills.