The most casual consideration of New England’s mechanical development brings one squarely against a most interesting and baffling phase of American industrial life, the brass industry of the Naugatuck Valley. Here, in a narrow district scarcely thirty miles long, centering about Waterbury, is produced approximately 80 per cent of the rolled brass and copper and finished brass wares used in the United States, an output amounting to upward of $80,000,000 a year. No concentration on so large a scale exists elsewhere in the country. For example, in 1900, Pennsylvania produced but 54 per cent of the iron and steel, and Massachusetts but 45 per cent of the boots and shoes. Furthermore, there seems to be no serious tendency to dislodge it. While there is more competition from outside, its ascendency is nearly as marked today as it was a generation ago. Why should this small district, a thousand miles or more from its sources of raw material, far from its market, and without cheap coal or adequate water power, gain and hold this leadership?[197] [197] The best study of the brass industry of the Naugatuck Valley has been made by William G. Lathrop, and has been published by him at Shelton, Conn., 1909, under the name of “The Brass Industry.” Mr. Lathrop had intimate knowledge of the subject and, in addition, unusual facilities for investigation. The personal history of many of the men who have figured in its growth will be found in Anderson’s “History of the Town and City of Waterbury,” 3 vols. 1895. It was not the first in the field. The Revere Copper Company, in Massachusetts, founded by Paul Revere, began rolling copper in 1801, and the Soho Copper Company, at Belleville, N. J., in 1813. The brass business in Connecticut had its origin with Henry Grilley, of Waterbury, who began making pewter buttons there in 1790. In 1802 Abel and Levi Porter joined him, and they started making brass buttons under the name of Abel Porter & Company. In 1811 all the original partners retired and a new firm was formed, Leavenworth, Hayden & Scovill. In 1827 Leavenworth and Hayden sold out to William H. Scovill, and the firm became J. M. L. & W. H. Scovill. J. M. L. Scovill did the selling and his brother ran the shop and the finances. In 1850 the firm was incorporated as the present Scovill Manufacturing Company.