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Judson Manufacturing Company Bond - Alameda, CA

Currency:USD Category:Western Americana Start Price:75.00 USD Estimated At:150.00 - 700.00 USD
Judson Manufacturing Company Bond - Alameda, CA
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c1887 Bond #263 issued to John Gillson, Secy for $500. Signed by Egbert Judson (1812-1893), President (and founder), and by Secretary. Ten original coupons still attached. Cancelled by purple stamp in two places as of Feb. 21, 1890. Measures about 10 x 16” with brown border and rare vignette of San Francisco Bay at sunset, pre-bridge. The company was founded in 1882, with operations in Oakland and Emeryville. The Oakland operations were comprised of various kinds of shops for different uses—i.e. bridges and structural steel, machine work, foundry and patterns, and nuts and bolts. There was also a large boarding house and individual dwellings. Egbert Judson (1812 -1893), an inventor and manufacturer of explosives, reportedly had the first Assay House in San Francisco in 1852. In 1867 Judson manufactured and used 3 pounds of dynamite in a trial blast—supposedly the first manufacture of dynamite in the U.S. following its invention by Alfred Nobel in 1866. The trial blast resulted in the formation of the Giant Powder Company to manufacture the new explosive. Giant Powder was for a long time a synonym for dynamite in the United States. Business proceeded relatively well until an explosion occurred at the plant at Fleming’s Point (today’s Golden Gate Fields racetrack) in 1883. The company rebuilt, and incorporated some safety features; however, “…the morning of July 9, 1892, a large, sudden explosion occurred in the nitroglycerine house where workers were cleaning up. Another six explosions followed which, along with several fires, leveled both the powder and chemical plants. Five men were killed outright, a boy was blown through a roof and another man was hurled into the bay. More than a dozen others were injured” [Ref: albany.patch.com/.../albanys-explosive-history-with-dynamite-part-ii, by Karen Sorensen]. The New York Times reported: “Seven distinct shocks were felt and 300 tons of giant powder brought death and destruction to the immediate neighborhood and caused great damage to Oakland and San Francisco. People for some moments, in both cities, were panic stricken.” After this explosion, the company moved further away from the now- congested area, and merged with another company at Pt. Pinole. By 1890 Egbert Judson and the Giant Powder Company had come to a parting of the ways—Giant felt that Judson was competing unfairly by establishing another company in direct competition with them. This was the Judson & Sheppard Chemical Works., also known as the San Francisco Chemical Works. When Judson sold his interest in the Giant Powder Co. he re-established on the north and west sides of Albany Hill [Ref: see above article by Karen Sorensen]. The company was later acquired by DuPont and stayed in business until 1905, when a series of explosions caused it to close and the property to be sold. - HKA#64309