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Construction Made: "King Cotton" furnished the impetus for a flourishing business in freight-ship construction made. Usually smaller and cruder than the packets, freighters made up nearly 50 per cent of the American- Merchant Marine in the 1850's. The lion's share of the construction made for this market went to the yards in Maine, making that state the center of American shipbuilding.
The decorator is often obliged to purchase ready-made upholstered furniture in which the construction made and stuffing are entirely hidden from view. There are always visible a few clues as to quality; but the reputation of the dealer must be the principal guarantee. The price range is always an indication, and most upholstered furniture is sold with a label indicating the wood of the framework and the ingredients of the padding. In the best grade of upholstery, cushions are soft and fluffy and are made mostly of down; in cheaper grades cushions are made with springs, covered with a padding, but these may be easily felt by pressing with the hand. If any wood is exposed, the kind is easily identified and the quality of carving and finish would indicate the general type of materials and construction made used throughout the piece. Ready-made upholstered furniture is usually sold "in the muslin" so that the decorator may select his own surfacing material.
Their wooden construction made, however, did not measure up to the stresses and strains of ocean-going steam propulsion. The entry of British iron steamers into the transatlantic trade in the 1850's made these craft obsolete and, with the abandonment of the mail subsidies in 1858, construction made of such oceangoing wooden steamships in the United States came to a halt.
While American wooden construction made v joying its heyday, iron shipbuilding in the States was going through its birth panj 1844, some 22 years after the first iron s had been built in Britain, the firm of Belts lan, and Hollingsworth of Wilmington, Del delivered the coastwise steamer, Bangor, tl significant iron ship built in America. |
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