NEW

BRITAIN  , a city of Hartford county, Connecticut, U.S.A., near the centre of the state, about 9 m . S.W. of the city of Hartford; land area 13.09 sq. m. in 1906 . Pop . (1890) of the township, including the city, 19,007; of the city, 16,519; (1900) of the township, including the city, 28,202; of the city, 25,998. of whom 9293 were foreign-born, including 1869 Irish and 1811 Swedes, who have a weekly published here; (1910 census) 43,916 . It is served by the N'ew York, New Haven & Hartford railway, and by several inter-urban electric railways . The city is the seat of a state normal school, and has a free public library, formerly the New Britain Institute, and a public park of about too acres . New Britain is an important manufacturing centre; its principal products are hardware, cutlery and edge tools, hosiery, and foundry and machine shop products . In 1905 the capital invested in manufacturing was $19,979,712 (an increase of 45.1 % since 190o) and the value of the factoryproducts was $14,959,543 (an increase of 34.8%) . More than one-half of the product-value was in hardware ($7,537,625) . New Britain, which was settled in 1687, was originally a part of the township of Farmington . On account of ecclesiastical difficulties the " New Britain Society "—a parish—was organized in 1754 . New Britain became a part of Berlin when that town-ship was established in 1785 .

In 1850 the township of New Britain was incorporated, and in 1871 the city was chartered . By

act of the state legislature in 1905 the township of New Britain and the city of New Britain were co_ aolidated; the first election under the new charter was in April 1906 . The city was one of the first in the country to build a municipal subway for electric light, telephone and telegraph wires . See D . N . Camp's History of New Britain (New Britain, 1889) .