On the journey - which in those days
was of thirty hours or more between Boston and Chicago - I had a lot of time on my hands,
and spent it in reading, and in hanging about in the Pullman Car. It was then that I made
the acquaintance of a gentleman who, with the usual American inquisitiveness, wanted to
know all about me - where I came from and what I was doing. I found that he himself was
going to Aurora, Illinois, a town only eleven miles from the place where I was going. He
invited me to go over and see him; and this eventually I did. I found that #he
was a Carpet Sweeper manufacturer in a small way of business. I well remember being much
fascinated by the compactness and cleanliness of his business ... although at the time I
did not even dream of the introduction of Carpet-Sweeper-making into our own works at
home.
Now there comes another incident which in
itself carried very important consequences afterwards. Sir Francis Ley - then Mr Francis
Ley, of Derby - had given me an introduction to the Ewart Link Bolt Company of Chicago. I
called on this firm, and Mr Ewart was extremely kind to me - taking me over the works and
explaining their methods to me. On our returning to the office he picked up a large piece
of chain, nine or ten inches wide, and told me they had just put down $10,000 worth of
plant for manufacturing this. I said that I presumed there must be a big demand for such
chain, if they had spent so much money in preparing to make it. To my astonishment Mr
Ewart replied that there was no demand at all. When I expressed surprise that they should
spend money without knowing whether it would produce a return or not, he replied that in
his opinion there was a real necessity for the link he was proposing to make; that the
public did not know that they needed it; that it was his intention to make them realise
it; and that after this they would then buy the link. He said that that was the American
method of getting ahead: where you could see there was a necessity for anything, produce
it at a marketable price and then take steps to make it go. This conversation sank deeply
into my mind, and - as will be seen - bore fruit later on.
During the years 1887 and 1888 our firm
was not making the headway we would have liked. It was thought that we ought to try to
manufacture something else along with our mangles *which our travellers would have the
opportunity to sell. It was felt that there would be great value in a good speciality.
There came into my mind the recollection of my visit to the Aurora Carpet Sweeper works in
1882, and my conversation with Mr Ewart in Chicago soon afterwards. My idea was that if
carpet sweepers could be a necessity in the States, they could also become a necessity
here in England. One good friend sneered at the idea of ever making a success of such a
carpet sweeper, and others doubted; but I felt that the scheme was a sound one and worth
going on with. It was finally decided to proceed with preparations; and so, on 1st May
1889, the first carpet sweeper was produced for sale and sent out. I believe it was
supplied to Hiram Waddington, Joiner and Builder, of Accrington.
It is needless to say that the early days
of the carpet sweeper trade were very chequered ones. Much ‘spade work’ had to
be done, and Messrs Barnes, W.H.Kenyon, and I did much distasteful work in attending
Agricultural Shows and enduring insults and snubs of great variety in our endeavours to
educate the public to the advantages of owning a carpet sweeper. We met with rebuffs and
also with encouragement, and the work that was done for several years in this uncongenial
way certainly helped to lay the foundation of the healthy business which exists today.
Those who read this will judge for
themselves how much of ‘chance ‘ or how much of ‘Providence’ led to
such a happy ending. If we had left Boston by the train we had decided to travel on, then
the whole idea of making carpet sweepers at Ewbank works would probably never have
evolved. Chance, or Providence? Those who know me will guess at my decided opinion.
R.W.K. 23 November 1921
# My father Richard de la Roche Kenyon said
that his grandfather (RWK) told him that this was Mr Bissell.
* Up till this time the Ewbank firm had concentrated upon
the manufacture of domestic washing-wringers or mangles.
Typed out and slightly modified by Dennis Duckworth
18/5/1994
Scanned to disk by Richard M B Kenyon and annotated
16/5/2001 |
