AN         HISTORICAL                               SKETCH
orders, with others of less magnitude, though important at the time, brought the
new foundry into instant prominence, and the management soon suffered from
a business growing in volume faster than it was possible to furnish facilities to
meet it. Out of this embarrassment came the positive assurance of future success
and greatness, and this encouragement was in no degree dimmed by the tremen-
dous difficulties that must be met. Then was formed that policy of careful,
conservative, exacting procedure that has made this firm one of the most powerful
of its kind.
Of the obstacles to be overcome one was uncontemplated, that of October,
1871, when Chicago was converted into piles of ashes and heaps of ruins. The
foundry was completely destroyed except a limited number of matrices saved
only by prompt action by individual members of the firm. These were removed
four times during the progress of the fire, each time to a supposedly safe place,
and finally to the West Side near Union Park, a portion of the city untouched
by the calamity.
Before the disorder of the conflagration had subsided, arrangements were
made for new headquarters on the fourth floor of 49 West Randolph Street.
Here, with two casting machines, shipped by express through the courtesy of an
Eastern connection, and the remnants from the fire, operations were resumed
under disadvantages that would discourage persons possessed with less energy
and zeal. Every single article had to be carried up three flights of narrow stairs
by muscular force alone. An improvement was made in this condition when, a
few months later, the adjoining floor was secured, and a windlass hoist was
rigged on the alley side of the building.  During this period so great was the
congestion and confusion in the various railroad yards, that it was frequently
necessary to personally locate cars in order to secure and obtain freight.
In the spring of 1872 the prospects were so flattering for an increase in
business, that a room was secured on the second floor of the same building,
which was used as an office and salesroom until May, 1873, when the foundry
was moved to the second floor of 107 and 109 Madison Street. Here, a front
floor space of 30x100 feet, and a rear floor space of 60x70 feet, held the entire
plant of Barnhart Bros. & Spindler. In this location, in the year 1874, the
publication of The Tppe Founder, was begun.
From this time the growth of the business was marvelous. Several additional
casting machines were secured, steam power being applied to a number of them.
This innovation was made possible by inventions of employes, and, with other
improvements, increased materially the facilities for the manufacture of type and
other material.
The work of bringing out a specimen book, the first, had been begun before
the fire, which destroyed most of the forms.  Not until 1873 was the book
finally completed. It comprised 200 pages, made up largely of the products of
Eastern foundries, for whom we were agents, the exceptions being a small variety
of body faces, and less than a dozen series of plain display faces of our own
manufacture.
In 1876 the building at 146 Fifth Avenue, 20 x 80 feet, was occupied. With
four floors and a basement, giving superfluous space, and a twelve horse-power

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