OLD ASHBURTONIAN.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 85, 21 January 1942, Page 4

OLD ASHBURTONIAN.

MR ALBERT CRUM, OF AUCKLAND Interesting news of a former resident of Ashburton is contained in a letter received by a resident of this town from a relative in Auckland. Tinwriter says: “I had a long yarn with Mr Albert Crum, of the Crum Brick and Tile Co., Now Lynn, last Monday and gave him some “Guardians.” Ho at one time had the brick yard at Tinwald and built the Woollen Mills smoke stack and the Flour Mills stack. He showed me the plans of both these smoke stacks to which they were built. One was built in 1882 and pulled down in 1941, having done 59 years’ service and the other was built in 1886 and was still in service in 1941. I am not sure which was the Woollen Mills one aim which the Flour Mills but you will know which one has been dismantled and can figure it from that. He must have been in Ashburton in about 1880, and has a very clear memory of early events. He and his sons run the business at New Lynn, where they have one of the most up-to-date brickworks in the Dominion. “Mr Orum has invented much of tho machinery in general use in brickmaking to-day and is an expert pattern maker and appears to bo a genius at designing clayworking machinery. Mr Crum installed the first machine in New Zealand in the works at Net.Lynn for extracting air out of day before baking. It appears that ordinary pipeclay, when worked for brick or tile-making, is so to speak, short in tho grain and brittle, but if tho anis exhausted from the clay Hie torture is more like chewing gum and quite plastic and bakes into a much better product, less liable to breakage. Needless to say he was very glad to receive the ‘Guardians.’

“Mr Crum is surprisingly active in mind and body, though suffering somewhat from rheumatics he still is an active member of tho firm, as I went out unheralded and found him in the' office among plans and a multitude oi patterns all of his own making. Ash bill’ toil must have turned out its full share of men of mark in its day.”