Silk City

Silk City

The city of Paterson in New Jersey was important in the growth of the industrial revolution in the late 19th century. Its major manufacturing concern at this time was the production of silk and this is reflected in the city's nickname of Silk City. Other industries included firearms manufacture started by Samuel Colt, railway locomotive manufacture and there were numerous mills involved in the textile industry. This burst of activity was largely caused by the presence of the Great Falls of the Passaic River, which supplied the necessary power. These 77 foot high falls are the second largest in volume throughout the Eastern seaboard and are a big tourist attraction.

This pioneering city of the modern age was also involved in the testing of early submarines. The Paterson Museum displays two models that took part in local trials. Industrial relations did not always run smoothly in Silk City. In 1913, silk workers went on strike in protest against their long hours and poor working conditions. The city was an important production center during World War II for aircraft engines.

The economic boom times came to an end in the 1970s and the area underwent a depression. In common with many other cities with traditional industries, manufacture went into decline and unemployment rose dramatically. Silk City managed to re-invent itself however and has a thriving economy today, based on successful small businesses, many of which are owned by immigrants. Migrants to the city have always had an economic impact, from the Irish, Dutch, Germans and Jews who arrived first to the Latin Americans and Mexicans coming today. The diverse mix in the population has resulted in a cosmopolitan variety of shops and restaurants.

There are many buildings from the Victorian and Georgian era and several of Italian or Dutch design. Some of this architecture is of historical importance. One of the more unusual buildings was commissioned by a wealthy silk mill owner in 1893 and the style was based on a British castle. After the building was sold to the city, it was converted to a museum and is known as Lambert Castle Museum. It contains artwork, artifacts and a public access research library.

The city is immortalized in the work of celebrated poet, William Carlos Williams. He wrote a tribute to Silk City, his hometown, in his poem, Paterson, which came out in parts and then was published as a whole in 1963.

Screen printing equipment

I'd been thinking about starting my own business for several years, but never really knew what I wanted to do until just recently. After a lot of careful consideration, I decided to sell t-shirts on eBay and from my own website. I've always had a knack for coming up with funny slogans and cool graphics, and just figured that this kind of thing would be right up my alley. Handling the online portion of the business was easy, but finding affordable screen printing equipment turned out to be more of a challenge.

Most of the screen printing equipment I looked at was simply too big and too expensive for my purposes. I wanted something that I could set up in my garage and that would be able to handle a reasonable number of shirts, sweatshirts, and jackets per month. If my business did well, I would definitely think about upgrading my screen printing equipment. But I didn't want to spend too much on a machine in case sales turned out to be much slower than anticipated.

The first decision I had to make was whether I wanted to go with new screen printing equipment or if used stuff would suit my purposes. Then, I had to decide which accessories I wanted and how I was going to get my screen printing equipment delivered and set up. Once I determined the answers to these questions, I started calling industrial suppliers in my area to see if anyone had the kind of screen printing equipment I wanted. Since I live in a rather remote place and wanted a small, used machine, I didn't have any luck with suppliers in my area. I was forced to try calling some suppliers in neighboring states and finally got a promising lead.

Before closing on the deal, I checked online to see what the average price of similar screen printing equipment was at different stores around the country. I didn't plan on spending more than I wanted to just because there was only one dealer to buy from. When I was online, I found many screen printing equipment catalogs and resources that helped me determine how much the machine was worth. Once I was satisfied that I was getting a fair deal, I went ahead with the purchase.

I'm happy to say that my screen printing equipment is already set up and cranking out great t-shirts and other apparel. My sales figures are just about where I hoped they'd be at this point, and it looks like I'll be able to make a real go of my business thanks in large part to starting off with the right screen printing equipment.