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Though best-known for his "midnight" ride and his work in silver and
gold, several of Revere's most significant accomplishments came later in
his life. Eager to begin manufacturing other metal products, Revere
built an iron and brass foundry in 1787 on the corner of Lynn and Foster
Streets in Boston's North End. Revere supported the venture with income
from his silversmith shop and financial assistance from his Hichborn
cousins.
After several years of producing iron products -- firebacks and window
weights -- he began making bolts and spikes for the shipbuilding
industry, cannon and bells. The foundry proved to be a forerunner to
what would be the most ambitious effort of his life, developing a mill
for rolling copper. In 1800 at the age of 65, Paul Revere, motivated by
patriotism and profit, and encouraged by a loan from the federal
government, purchased and renovated a former gunpowder mill in Canton,
Massachusetts for use as a copper rolling mill.
This venture depended on his success at learning a new technology,
obtaining scarce raw materials and balancing other variables such as
seasonal aspects of
water power and the new and somewhat cumbersome federal government.
Revere became the first American to successfully roll copper into sheets
in a commercially viable manner. His customers included among others,
the federal government for its naval vessels, the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts for the dome of its new state house, and Robert Fulton who
needed heavy copper sheets for boilers for his steamships.
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This 900 pound bronze bell was cast in 1804 at the bell and cannon
foundry of Paul Revere and Son. It was sold in 1805 to the East Parish
Church in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Today it is on display in the
Revere House courtyard. It is only one of 23 bells known to exist which
were cast during the period of Revere's personal involvement at the
foundry. Revere cast his first bell in 1792, for his own church, the
Second Church of Boston. He cast his last bell in 1811 when at age 76
he ended his active partnership in the family firm. Between 1792 and
1828, the Revere foundry cast 959 bells. One of those bells, cast in
1816, still rings each Sunday in Boston's King's
Chapel. Paul Revere
called it "the sweetest bell we ever made." |
Copper sheeting
manufactured at Paul Revere's copper rolling mill in Canton
Massachusetts was used to cover the dome of the new state house
in 1803. The Commonwealth chose to replace it in 1874 with 23-carat
gold leaf. Paul Revere also produced many of the brass fittings for a
ship we know today as Old Ironsides, the USS Constitution.
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Paul Revere placed this ad for his bell foundry in a Worcester
Massachusetts newspaper called the National AEGIS on October 28,
1807. It mentions that his foundry, in the North End of Boston, has
constantly
for sale "Church and Academy Bells, of all sizes, which they will
warrant equal to any made in Europe or this country."
Click below to view other unique ads for Revere's foundry from 1801, 1805, and 1807.
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Back to the Paul Revere Biography
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