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PATERSON

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 913 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PATERSON , a See also:

city and the See also:county-seat of See also:Passaic county, New See also:Jersey, U.S.A., in the See also:north-eastern See also:part of the See also:state, on the See also:west See also:bank of the Passaic. See also:river, and 16 m. N.W. of New See also:York city. Pop. (188o), 51,031; (1890), 78,347; (1900), 105,171; (1906, estimate), 112,801; (1910), 125,600. Of the See also:total in 1900, 38,791 were See also:foreign-See also:born. Paterson is served by the See also:main lines of the See also:Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, the See also:Erie, and the New York, Susquehanna & Western See also:railways, and by a number of inter-See also:urban electric lines. The See also:Morris See also:Canal was formerly important for See also:shipping See also:freight between Paterson and Jersey City, but has fallen into disuse. The city lies along a See also:bend of the Passaic river, the See also:southern portion being in a See also:plain and the extreme See also:northern part lying among the hills that rise from the stream near the See also:Great Falls. The river has a descent here of about 70 ft. (of which 5o ft. are in a perpendicular fall), and furnishes See also:water-See also:power for manufactories. The See also:principal public buildings are the city-See also:hall, the See also:post See also:office, the county See also:court-See also:house and the Danforth Memorial (public library) See also:building. Paterson is pre-eminently a manufacturing centre.

There were, in 1905, 513 factories employing a See also:

capital of $53,595,585, and furnishing See also:work for 28,509 employes; and the total factory product was valued at $54,673,083. The city is the centre of See also:silk manufacturing in the See also:United States. In 1905 it contained 190 silk-See also:mills, and the products were valued at $25,433,245. There were also, in 1905, 27 See also:dyeing and See also:finishing establishments, with products valued at $5,699,295; 39 foundries and See also:machine shops, with products valued at $2,317,185; 3 wholesale slaughtering and packing houses, with products valued at $z,zo6,698; and 3 jute and jute-goods factories, with an output valued at $929,319. Among the machine See also:works are two See also:locomotive shops, with an See also:average capacity of three locomotives per See also:day, and a large See also:steel See also:mill. Paterson had its origin in an See also:act of the legislature of New Jersey on the 22nd of See also:November 1791, incorporating the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures, the See also:plan for this society being See also:drawn up by See also:Alexander See also:Hamilton. As the most suitable location for its enterprise the society in the following See also:year selected the Great Falls of the Passaic river, and named the See also:place Paterson, in See also:honour of See also:William Paterson (1745-1806), a member of the state Constitutional See also:Convention in 1776, See also:attorney-See also:general of New Jersey in 1776-1783, a delegate to the See also:Con.tinental See also:Congress in 178o-1781, and to the Constitutional Convention of 2 The books of the See also:Darien See also:Company were kept after a new and very much improved plan, believed to be an invention of Paterson's (See also:Burton's Hist. See also:Scot. viii. 36, See also:note). 1787 (where he proposed the famous " New Jersey Plan "), a United States Senator in 1789-1790, See also:governor of the state in 1790-1793, and an See also:associate See also:justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1793 until his See also:death. Paterson was incorporated as a township in 1831, chartered as a city in 1851 and rechartered in 1861. Three great See also:industries—the manufacture of See also:cotton, machinery and silk—were established in Paterson almost contemporaneously with their introduction into the United States.

In 1793 the first cotton See also:

yarn was spun at Paterson in a mill run by ox-power, and in the next year, when the dams and See also:reservoir were completed, Paterson's first cotton factory began its operations. After 184o the manufacture of machinery and of silk gradually supplanted that of cotton goods. Although an See also:attempt was made to manufacture machinery in Paterson as See also:early as 1800, there was little progress until after 1825. The building of the " See also:Sandusky," Paterson's first locomotive, in 1837, marked the beginning of a new See also:industry, and before r86o the city was supplying locomotives to all parts of the United States and to See also:Mexico and See also:South See also:America. By 184o the silk industry had obtained a footing, and after this date there was a steady advance in the quantity and quality of the product. From 1872 to 1881 inclusive Paterson consumed two-thirds of the raw silk imported into the See also:country. See L. R. See also:Trumbull, See also:History of See also:Industrial Paterson (Paterson, 1882).

End of Article: PATERSON

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