Horseshoes, Shirts and Other Marvels of Troy

The other thing about Troy, NY that is not like ancient Troy is that so far I have not seen Brad Pitt anywhere.

I have been hoping to catch a glimpse of him in his superhot Trojan outfit from that documentary movie he was in but so far, no Brad.

Meanwhile, I have discovered a whole other side of the tracks of Troy, that’s not all Hollywood and epic wars. This small city was a giant of manufacturing during the Industrial Revolution and starting in the mid 1800’s, the town just could not make enough stuff for the rest of the world to use.



First, iron! This is what remains of the Burden Iron Works, which was once a huge complex of buildings devoted to iron and its products that was worthy of Vulcan himself. Mister Burden was a sort of genius of metal and invented a machine that made one horseshoe a second for about fifty years. Not to brag, but Troy, New York basically made all of the horseshoes for the Civil War! For the winning side, just to clarify.

Next, shirts! This building was once the home of the Cluett-Peabody Company, which any Trojan over the age of 40 can tell you, made collars, cuffs and entire shirts as part of the pervasive shirt empire marketed under the Arrow name. Troy was once called "Collar City" because at one point this powerful town produced 90% of all the removable shirt collars and cuffs in the world.



Next, inventors! This is the Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute, which has been a kind of factory for geniuses since 1820 something and Troy has kicked out hundreds of the world’s craftiest minds. The inventors of the Ferris Wheel, sunscreen, fire sprinklers and the guy who invented the Brooklyn Bridge all went to RPI.

I went wandering around the campus and I got to talking to this lady, Barbara Dean who works at the school. She told me her father Christy Morris, an English immigrant to Troy, had gotten a sneak-degree from RPI by figuring out what courses he needed in engineering and then quietly sitting in the back row of all the classes. He could not afford to pay for the education, but he got it anyway and went on to work for the shirt empire and then across the river at the arsenal.

Barbara said her father had a precise and inventive mind and he was always looking at things and figuring out how to improve them. He used this gift at the arsenal for many years, saving our government and all of us that employ the government lots and lots of money.

Oh, Mister Christy Morris, how we could use you now!

This is Deb in the City, leaving plenty of room for improvement, saying so long from the former shirt capitol of the known universe.