Boston has come a long way since its inception, when houses were heated by cords of chopped wood cut from the encroaching forest instead of by gleaming, modern, high efficiency central heating boilers in the basement. In the intervening years, Boston's industry has evolved from what people could do by hand with simple tools to masterpieces of engineering built in automated factories. If you're curious about how much industry and manufacturing really goes on in the seemingly white collar city of Boston, you've come to the right page.

Upon the first introduction of industry to the city of Boston, the focus was on textiles. Boston's duplex strainers became clogged with wool as it was washed, spun, and turned into fabrics and practical clothing. Cows became leather, and leather became shoes. The early 1900s saw the departure of many of the mainstays in this industry, but some companies have retained operations in Boston to this day. In fact, New Balance, one of the top athletic shoe manufacturers in the country, has its headquarters in the city.

Though textiles is one of the oldest industrial ventures in Boston, the top spot is occupied by the high technology industry. The presence of so many top science and research universities in and around the city has attracted companies specializing in everything from the shielding of cable sheaves to biotechnology. Teradyne, a major local company, is a leading producer of semiconductors and electrical equipment. Other Boston companies develop and produce machinery, medical equipment, navigational instruments, chemicals, rubber products, software, missiles, and guidance chips.

Though it's not as glamorous as working in a factory that produces missiles, Boston's food processing industry is another competitive economic sector thanks to the over two million pounds of fish local fisherman deliver each year. Fish need to be sorted, cleaned, processed, and packaged in heat shrink sleeves to be delivered to restaurants and super markets, all of which is done in local factories. Sharing the fishermen's harbor space is Boston's transport industry, which is one of the oldest in the country. It handles over 14 million tons of fuel, goods, and other cargo each year. Containers, fuel tanks, cars, you name it. It's all loaded and off-loaded by Boston's dockyard cranes.

Just as globally reaching but less blue collar than most of Boston's industries is the publishing industry. Much of the work at companies like Houghton Mifflin and Little Brown is done by editors in business attire, but down on the printing floor the employees are more at home among ink and warm metal than they are among non-fiction manuscripts on the history of septic tank pump trucks. Together, these publishers type set and stamp out millions of books per year.