The West Street Foundry was an American

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...

ering works notable for producing marine steam engines in the mid-19th century. Based in Brooklyn, New York, the company built at least 27 marine engines between 1845 and 1855, including engines for some of the fastest and finest

steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...

s of the era. The company also built and repaired steam engines and boilers of all types, as well as doing other metalwork. The company failed and was liquidated in 1855.

History

The earliest known records of the West Street Foundry, also known at this time as Howell & Coffee, date to 1839. Principals of the firm were Joseph E. Coffee, then a 28-year-old engineer, and Maelzaer Howell. With Howell's death in 1842, Coffee became sole proprietor, and would continue his association with the firm throughout its history. Coffee's younger brother, George Wayne Coffee, was also an engineer and an associate of the firm. The business was located on the northwest corner of West and Beach Streets, Brooklyn, New York. In addition to marine engines, the company built stationary steam engines, and built and repaired both marine and stationary boilers as well as doing a variety of other metalwork. The company also bought and sold steamboats on commission, and sometimes offered steamboats in its possession for excursions or charter. The foundry's services were advertised as far afield as Alabama. By 1850, the company had been acquired by Wilson Small, a prominent figure in the New York branch of the Democratic Party, with Coffee remaining as superintendent and agent. The company had 140 employees in 1850; by 1851 this number had risen to 200. The foundry is known to have built the engines for at least 27 steam vessels, though more are likely unaccounted for. Among the more notable vessels powered by West Street Foundry engines were and ''Mountaineer''—two Hudson River passenger steamboats noted for their speedMorrison 1903. pp
354–355
—and ''State of Maine'' and , both considered on debut to be the finest and fastest steamboats in Maine coastal service. Wilson Small was forced to make an assignment of the business in 1855. He subsequently joined the

civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

, while Coffee established a new steam engineering works in Keyport, New Jersey.Reussille 1975. p. 6.

About the proprietors

Joseph Ellis Coffee was born in Philadelphia on December 27, 1811. After training as an engineer and serving as a principal of the West Street Foundry until its closure, he established a new business offering similar services in Keyport, New Jersey, near the steamboat landing. The location was close to the shipyard of Benjamin C. Terry, with whom Coffee and Small had a longstanding business relationship; Coffee sometimes supervised the construction of steamers at Terry's yard, and Small was the original owner of at least seven vessels built there.Reussille 1975. p. 16. In later years, Coffee served as Chief of Bureau of Steam with New York's

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

. Coffee was a director and later vice-president of the Mechanics' Institute of New York, and a director of the Brooklyn Fire Insurance Company. He died December 5, 1869, at the age of 58, and is buried at Green Grove Cemetery, Keyport. Wilson Small was born in New York City on February 13, 1810.Ridgely 1878. pp
416–422
Entering the workforce at the age of twelve, he trained as a jeweller, continuing in the trade until the

panic of 1837 The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that touched off a major depression, which lasted until the mid-1840s. Profits, prices, and wages went down, westward expansion was stalled, unemployment went up, and pessimism abound ...

. A growing engagement with politics led him to stand for political office, and he was elected to the

New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Assem ...

in 1846 and 1847. Later, he served as president of New York City's Tenth Ward. Following the failure of the West Street Foundry, Small joined the civil service, and subsequently obtained a variety of government positions. He was a Sachem and later, the longterm Sagamore of Tammany Hall, and a Grand Master of the Odd Fellows. He died October 21, 1886.

Production table

The following table lists marine steam engines known to have been built by the West Street Foundry; the list is likely incomplete.

Footnotes

References

Bibliography

* * * * OCLC 1626009 * OCLC 1626009 * * * * * {{OCLC, 831299722 1839 establishments in New York (state) 1855 disestablishments in New York (state) American companies established in 1839 Defunct marine engineering companies of New York City Manufacturing companies based in New York City