Hugh Orr (2 January 1715 – 6 December 1798) was a Scottish-born toolmaker, gunsmith and inventor in Massachusetts. He introduced to America new methods of manufacturing cannons during the Revolutionary War, and later of processing cotton.
Early life and career
Orr was the son of Robert Orr of
Lochwinnoch
Lochwinnoch (; sco, Lochineuch, gd, Loch Uinneach) is a village in the council area and historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. Lying on the banks of Castle Semple Loch and the River Calder, Lochwinnoch is c ...
,
Renfrewshire
Renfrewshire () ( sco, Renfrewshire; gd, Siorrachd Rinn Friù) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland.
Located in the west central Lowlands, it is one of three council areas contained within the boundaries of the historic county of Renfr ...
, and he was brought up in the trade of a gunsmith and locksmith.
He emigrated to America, arriving in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
in 1737; he and two other emigrants from Lochwinnoch set up a blacksmith's shop in
Easton, Massachusetts
Easton is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 25,058 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Greater Boston area.
Easton is governed by an elected Select Board. Open Town Meeting acts as the legislative branch ...
.
"Men of Iron"
Journal of the Renfrewshire Local History Forum, Volume 6 (1994).
In June 1740 he settled at Bridgewater in Massachusetts, which was already notable for iron-manufacturing. Here he manufactured scythes and edge-tools, setting up the first trip hammer
A trip hammer, also known as a tilt hammer or helve hammer, is a massive powered hammer. Traditional uses of trip hammers include pounding, decorticating and polishing of grain in agriculture. In mining, trip hammers were used for crushing meta ...
to be constructed in Massachusetts. Through him the manufacture of edge-tools spread through Massachusetts, Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...
, and Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
.[Gorden Berg, Bruce Adams. ''Laboring for Independence: Workers in the Revolution''. Department of Labor, 1976. Page 6.]
/ref>
In 1748 he made five hundred muskets for the province of Massachusetts Bay
Massachusetts Bay is a bay on the Gulf of Maine that forms part of the central coastline of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Description
The bay extends from Cape Ann on the north to Plymouth Harbor on the south, a distance of about . Its ...
, believed to have been the first weapons of the kind produced in the country.[
During the ]American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
, Orr and a French business partner built a foundry
A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...
to cast iron and brass cannon and cannon-balls.[ They made cannons using a new method introduced from Europe: instead of casting the cannon with a cylindrical cavity which was later refined, the gun was cast solid and the gun barrel was then drilled. This produced a more reliable and accurate cannon.][
]
After the war
After the war he was a senator for Plymouth County in the Massachusetts legislature
The Massachusetts General Court (formally styled the General Court of Massachusetts) is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the earliest days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, w ...
for several years. Interested in the new cotton processing machinery in use in Britain, he set up in 1786 with Scottish brothers Robert and Alexander Barr carding
Carding is a mechanical process that disentangles, cleans and intermixes fibres to produce a continuous web or sliver (textiles), sliver suitable for subsequent processing. This is achieved by passing the fibres between differentially moving su ...
, roving
A roving is a long and narrow bundle of fiber. Rovings are produced during the process of making spun yarn from wool fleece, raw cotton, or other fibres. Their main use is as fibre prepared for spinning, but they may also be used for specialised ...
and spinning
Spin or spinning most often refers to:
* Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning
* Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis
* Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...
machinery; these are thought to be the first such machines in America. Made with the help of a grant from the Massachusetts legislature and known as the "state models", Orr encouraged copies to be made. He also established a business marketing flax
Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a flowering plant, ''Linum usitatissimum'', in the family Linaceae. It is cultivated as a food and fiber crop in regions of the world with temperate climates. Textiles made from flax are known in ...
seed, and invented a machine for cleaning flax seed.[
]
Family
In 1742 he married Mary Bass; they had ten children. Their son Robert Orr was a colonel in the Anglo-American War and was armorer of the United States arsenal at Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States, and the seat of Hampden County. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ...
.[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Orr, Hugh
1715 births
1798 deaths
People from Renfrewshire
Scottish emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies
Gunsmiths
18th-century American inventors
Massachusetts state senators