Manuscript Letter-Copy Book of Early Labor Unionist and Ohio?s First Chief Inspector of Shops and Factories - Henry Dorn, of Columbus, Ohio, 1884-1885

Dorn, Henry

Verlag:

Quarto, 622 manuscript pp., and 11 page index; comprising 178 copied letters on tissue paper, written to 127 different businesses, individuals, and government officials, dated 29 April 1884 to 30 December 1885; bound in half leather, cloth boards, back-strip lacking, edges and corners worn, boards scuffed and rubbed; lacks several pages, couple of pages torn, otherwise written in a good, legible hand, not faded. The letter-copy book contains copies of letters to the owners, or managers of various shops and factories that Chief Inspector Dorn was responsible for inspecting in the state of Ohio. He either writes to let them know that their company complied with the new statutes, or that the company did not pass inspection. If the company failed the inspection, he lets them know what improvements must be made in order to bring the businesses up to standards set by an Act of the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, entitled: ?Revised Statues of Ohio, for the better protection of health, comfort & safety of persons employed in Shops & Factories.? Inspector Dorn also writes to various government officials such as the Ohio State Auditor and the Ohio Attorney General. The letter-copy book represents the first 21 months (April 1884-December 1885) that the position of Chief Inspector of Shops & Factories existed. Dorn was the first Chief Inspector appointed under the new statute passed on 4 April 1884. Henry Dorn (1843-1911) Henry Dorn was born on 16 February 1843 at Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany, where he attended the local public schools until he was fourteen years old. At fourteen, he studied machinery, serving as an apprentice from 1857 to 1862. During this time, he entered night-college and took up the subject of draughting, which he readily mastered. After his schooling he went to Paris, France, where he found work with the Northern Railroad Company, a company at that time of three thousand men. For the next four years he spent his time in the shops and the drawing rooms. After leaving this company he found employment with other companies working on stationary engines, tools, telegraph instruments, and in other branches of mechanics. In this manner he mastered mechanical engineering, and the French language. In 1869, Dorn immigrated to the United States and found work at his trade with William Sellers & Company, of Philadelphia, one of the finest machine shops in America. He next established his own cigar factory, but disliked the work, and went to work for Henry Disston & Company, the famous Philadelphia saw maker. There he worked on an invention for large circular saws. Dorn was next went to Cleveland, Ohio, where he accepted a position with the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, where he remained for six years before leaving for the American Telegraph Supply Company, helping to build the first electric light. He then is found as the superintendent of the Cleveland Superior Viaduct, before finally working for the city of Cleveland in their Civil Engineer?s Department, laying some of the first block pavements in the city. During employment with the H.P. Wire Nail Company, of Cleveland, in the early part of 1881, he received injuries, which rendered him partially paralyzed, on his right side, for nearly three years, at which time he accepted an appointment by Ohio Governor Hoadly in the beginning of 1884, and was made the first Chief Inspector of Workshops and Factories in Ohio. It is during this period of Dorn?s life that this letter-copy book was kept, when he served as Ohio? first Chief Inspector as the statute was only passed in April of 1884. In this chief inspector?s position, he succeeded in getting on the statute books many wise and beneficial laws and succeeded in giving the office not only a state, but a national reputation. In 1888 he brought to light, and exposed, a most iniquitous scheme to enrich the proprietors of the various glass works of the state who were shipping t. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 030674

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Manuscript Letter-Copy Book of Early Labor ...
Einband: Hardcover
Zustand: Very Good