Perfection in the Mechanical Arts

The development of Moravian industrial technology in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1741-1814

Stephen H. Cutcliffe and Karen Z. Huetter
(A paper read at the Gipson Institute, Lehigh University, on November 6, 1998)

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Introduction | Religion&Economy | Crafts&Trades | Conclusion

INTRODUCTION

Some years ago, historian of technology Norman B. Wilkinson called attention to the fact that despite the rapidly expanding state of American industry in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the nation was still largely indebted to Europe for its technology. In an article entitled "Brandywine Borrowings From European Technology," Wilkinson referred to the estimates of French traveler Rochefoucault-Liancourt who observed, although perhaps exaggeratedly so, that as early as 1797, there were some 60 to 80 mills of varied sorts along the Brandywine River near Wilmington, Delaware. By 1804, Jedidiah Morse was able to note in his American Gazetteer that "Wilmington and its neighborhood are probably already the greatest seat of manufactures in the United States." Although by the turn of the 19th century the Brandywine river Valley may well have been the "greatest seat of manufactures," it was by no means the first or only such early concentration of industrial activity.

When the American colonial leader John Adams arrived in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in late January, 1777, he wrote to his wife Abigail that, the Moravians "have carried the mechanical Arts to greater Perfection here than in any Place which I have seen." Although not founded until 1741, within six years the Moravians were practicing over 30 crafts and industrial trades within the community, and by the mid-1750s, the number had grown to approximately 50. Many of these heavier trades such as grist milling, tanbark crushing, oil milling, and a pumped waterworks depended on an extensive (for the period) water power system for their source of energy. It was this early concentration of industrial technology occurring along the Monocacy Creek that makes Bethlehem one of those locations that must also be considered for its nascent contribution to American technological development.

Often overlooked because of subsequent 19th century industrial activities, this early example of American proto-industrial development is, nonetheless, valuable for what it reveals about technological practice in the latter half of the eighteenth century. Why Bethlehem developed such a concentration of crafts and trades in one location at such a relatively early date, and why that growth later stagnated, helps us to understand how the economic history of the community evolved and complements much of what historians know generally about early American technological practice.

from the Colletions at Historic Bethlehem [PA]