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Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2002
Electrical supplies, a comparatively new industry in New Jersey, are
manufactured principally in the Newark sector, where appliances, dynamos, and incandescent lamps are produced; while Camden leads the country in the manufacture of radios. The annual output of the electrical
industry is valued at $91,000,000.
Paterson and Passaic are the traditional homes of the textile industry.
Although the manufacture of silk, rayon, and cotton goods has been steadily declining in this area for the last three decades, it remains -- together
with finishing and dyeing of textiles-the major occupation. High tax
rates, excessive power costs, and destructive price-cutting by some operators
have combined to weaken the textile industry in New Jersey. Many of the
silk and cotton manufactures have moved their machinery into New England, Pennsylvania, and the South. In 1933, when production throughout
the Nation was beginning to rise from the low point of 1932, the output
of silk and rayon in New Jersey was 60 percent lower than in pre-war
years. Since textiles, however, still employ a greater number of the State's
workers than any other one industry (approximately 30 percent in the
many branches), the decline constitutes one of New Jersey's most pressing
industrial problems.
Other industries that contribute significantly to the State's wealth are
cigar and cigarette manufacturing; slaughtering and meat-packing; printing and publishing; canning, in Camden; rubber goods manufacturing, in
Trenton and Passaic; shipbuilding, in Kearny and Camden; jewelry-making, in Newark; and soap-making, in Jersey City.
New Jersey houses many industries, not included in the leading group,
which nevertheless by virtue of location or individuality are of great importance in the State economy. Trenton is the center of clay-products
manufacturing for the entire Nation. Lenox, Incorporated, produces a
chinaware known the world over. Trenton is also headquarters for the
three plants of the John A. Roebling Son's Company, the world's leading
manufacturers of wire cable and rope.
A number of unusual manufacturing concerns have developed in New
Jersey. In North Plainfield is one of the Nation's five telescope factories.
At Burlington is the only company in the United States which makes artificial human hair and horse hair, and here also is a birch carriage factory
that manufactures jinrikshas for Japan, one-wheeled carts for Korea, and
big-wheeled trekking wagons for use on South American plantations. Red
Bank has three shops exclusively devoted to the hand-hammering of gold
leaf.
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