THE OLD STAGE WHICH JOURNEYED FROM PHILADELPHIA TO PITTSBURGH
Some of the greatest manufacturing plants in the United States, in fact in the world, are in Philadelphia. In certain branches of the textile, or woven-goods, industry Philadelphia is unsurpassed. In the making of woolen carpets she leads the world. This industry goes back to Revolutionary times, when the first yard of carpet woven in the United States came from a Philadelphia loom. In 1791 a local manufacturer made a carpet, adorned with patriotic emblems, for the United States Senate.
Other important industries of the city include the manufacturing of woolen and worsted goods, hosiery and knit goods, rugs, cotton goods, felt hats, silk goods, cordage, and twine and the dyeing and finishing of textiles. The largest lace mill in the world is in Philadelphia.
OLD IRONSIDES
Philadelphia is also noted for the manufacture of iron and steel. The largest single manufactory in Philadelphia is the Baldwin Locomotive Works, which is the greatest of its kind. Pictures of the old Flying Machine, a stagecoach which made trips to New York in 1776, and of Old Ironsides, the first locomotive built by Matthias W. Baldwin in 1832, seem very queer in comparison with the powerful 300-ton locomotives built in Philadelphia to-day. Old Ironsides weighed a little over 4 tons and lacked power to pull a loaded train on wet and slippery rails; hence the following notice which appeared in the newspapers: “The locomotive engine built by Mr. M. W. Baldwin of this city will depart daily when the weather is fair with a train of passenger cars. On rainy days horses will be attached.”
Besides the American railroads using Baldwin locomotives, engines built in this plant are in use in many foreign lands. There is hardly a part of the world to which one can go where a Philadelphia-made locomotive is not to be seen.
