Brooklyn's Industries

The Empire China Works

Of all the uses to which porcelain has been put since the days of Palessa, none promises greater usefulness than the devices for handling electricity which are increasing wonderfully with the perpetual developments of that latest and most wonderful servant of the race. For a time all electrical insulators not made of rubber were of glass. But glass is brittle, where porcelain is tough, and porcelain being also a vitreous non conductor, is taking the place of the former in the handling, taming, chaining and leading about of the lightning. Factories have sprung up in various parts of the country to meet this demand, of which few, if any, are larger, or more important than the Empire China Works of J. L. Jensen whose exhibit is group 120, class 770 in the department of electricity. Mr. Jensen is an old and prominent resident of the Seventeenth ward or Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, having been an important figure in the business and political life of the town. Twenty years ago he was a police commissioner, and in 1877 and 1878 he was a member of the board of assessors, and has become widely known. In business Mr. Jensen has built up a factory which occupies the numbers from 144 to 156 Greene street, near Manhattan avenue, Greenpoint, seven lots, covering a space 175 feet by 100. The factory has been in operation since 1867, employed largely on hardware trimmings and table ware, its goods of this sort having achieved an enviable reputation in the trade. Since the tremendous development of electricity in recent years, Mr. Jensen has turned his attention largely to electrical appliances and has developed an extensive business in that line. Of its varied branches of manufacture the Empire China works only exhibits its electrical appliances made of genuine hard porcelain. One of their electrical cutouts is shown in the accompanying cut. Other inventions manufactured by this company and shown in their exhibit here are hard porcelain switch cases, hard porcelain insulators, porcelain mouth pieces for speaking tubes and other contrivances no less interesting than ingenious.

JENSEN's PORCELAIN INSULATOR.

With the Empire company's display all sections and nearly every ward of the City of Churches, which is also seen to be the city of manufacturers and newspapers as well, is represented; from Newtown creek to Gowanus bay every part of Brooklyn has contributed of its best to the wonders of the fair.