CANTERBURY WORKS AND WORKERS.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7778, 4 February 1891, Page 6

CANTERBURY WORKS AND WORKERS.

MESSRS ANDERSON'S FOUNDRY.

(BY OUR SPECIAL REPORTSR.)

Of all the industries that the British people engage in there is scarcely one that they have made so important or raised to such perfection as the working of iron. Britain certainly exported something like £120,192,642 worth of woven fabrics last year against £50,693,215 worth of iron and iron goods, but it is only by the aid of machinery that she is able to do this, for, as Mulhall states, it is by the aid of machinery that a girl twelve years old in a Lancashire mill can turn out daily 35yds of printed calico, or in a year sufficient to clothe 1200 persons, work equal in benefit to mankind to that of five able-bodied peasants toiling all the year round. It is the iron-workers, the engineers of England that have really built up the wealtn of the country, for without them neither the traders nor the shippers would hold their present position. . ~ . Engineering seems to be the most favorite pursuit with the British people. It gives room for their inventive genius and for their perseverance and activity. When the English aristocracy first stepped outside Army, Navy, and Church for employment they took to engineering as the most attractive sort of work, and now the English speaking peoples almost rule the world by engineering. Even in the youngest English colonies, the same trait manifests itself, and New Zealand is no way behind the rest of her sister colonies in the different branches of engineering, and we have in Christchurch ironworks that will compare favorably with any south of the line in point of completeness, if not in size. An account of a recent visit to one of these—the establishment of Messrs Anderson—will doubtless be read with interest. Mr John Anderson established this firm in 1850, when the colony itself was but barely established. He came out in one of the first four ships, and saw Christchurch when the place had very little right to be called a town. On his arrival, he paid a visit to the Messrs Deans at Riccarton, who were countrymen of his, and after a little talis with those pioneers of the province was convinced that Canterbury was a good iield for a tradesman of his class, so he became a colonist, ana a very useful one too. His work was not child's play in those days. Often after a hard day's work he has tramped over the Port Hills to Lyttelton, and tramped back again, carrying the iron that he required for his work, for there was no Part train then, and the carriage of goods from Lyttelton via Sumner to Christchurch was neither rapid nor certain. Mr Anderson has even had to carry coal on his back over the same hills, through which now thousand* of tons pour weekly cut from New Zealand mines, His business, however, grew with the colony, and after a few years he imported into Christchurch an engine, a cupola, and all the things necessary fora foundry. His fellow townsmen welcomed this piece cf enterprise in a truly Brimh way. When the foundry was opeued the principal citizens hud a public dinner in its honour. Only a very few people can imagine the difficulties of getting the machinery over the hills to the plain, and perhaps only Mr Anderson can understand all the difficulties encountered before that foundry turned out its -first casting, or if anyone else understood them it was Mr FiczGerald, the former proprietor of thia paper, for few people took more interest in the work than he. The establishment of the foundry was an epoch in the business of Mr John Anderson, but now foundry and business have grown almost out of recognition. Mr Anderson's sons have entered the firm and as Messrs Anderson have done and will do great work in the country. They have spanned our great swift rivers with strong bridges, they have built viaducts and aqueducts, manufactured all kinds of machinery, and arc equally prepared to build gigantic railroads, or to produce the smallest castings used iv a portable engine. The works of the firm known generally as the Canterbury Foundry, iucludingiron foundry, fitting shops, blacksmith-)' shops. Btretch from Cashel street to Lichfield street. Mr John Anderson, Junr., very kindly introduced mc to the various branches of the establishment, and supplied mc with valuable information. We first visited the drawing office, where all the plans, specifications, and calculations are prepared. In this department are a good many of our Christchurch youths coing through their first course of engineering, the usual method being that beginners should serve two years in the office and three years in the workshop. When the drawings for any particular work are completed they are traced, and several copies taken by means of a photographic process known as ferrotype. Hung round the drawing office are photos of some of the works done by the firm— forty-ton cranes for the Timaru and Napier Harbor Boards, marine, boilers for the tug Lyttelton, designs for steam winches, steam engines, steam cranes, and many other things, some of them showing not only accurate drawing, but a good deal of artistic taste. From the drawing office we went to the ' 1 pattern shop, which is under the charge of Mr Patterson; a valued foreman, who has been with the firm nearly a quarter of a century. He and his staff were engaged making patterns or models of the parts for a compound engine and heavy gear toothed wheels. These patterns require great care and accuracy in their make, as they are intended to be exactly reproduced in iron or other metal, and when once produced in their harder material are not easily altered. Some of the patterns being made were parts of various dredges intended to fish up golden treasures from the Molyneux, Bailer, Kanieri, and Hokitika Rivers. Mr Anderson whilst speaking of these dredges, remarked that their manufacture for goldmining was a new industry, and that one of the difficulties encountered in the beginning was to find suitable apparatus for saving the gold after it was raised, this being more the work of miners than engineers; but than a little experience had enabled them to meet the requirement, and now the only difficulty will be for mine holders to find the gold for the dredges to lift. Some of the designs and patterns for iron verandahs, railings, columns, stair banisters, Sec, were really beautiful, and to produce them the pattern-maker must be a skilful carver. The machinery at ■work in the room was very powerful and complete, the principal machines being a large band saw, a circularjsaw, boring and morticing machines, and about six lathes of various sizes. From the pattern shop we went by natural order to the foundry, for it is there that the patterns are moulded in sand and cast in metal. As Mr Anderson remarked, their collection of patterns would nearly show the history of the firm; for nearly every part of the machinery they have made, or, at any rate, all the parts cast in metal, have been first carved in wood. Mr Hugh Hepburn is in charge of the foundry, and he, like Mr Patterson, has been a long itme in the firm. Some of the work he was turning out of the foundry will be interesting to Canterbury people, it being the cylinders for a bridge over the Kowai at the Springfield end of the Midland Railway. The work of casting and moulding is a most important branch. There are three furnaces for melting the metaL the blast which gives such intense heat to the fires being supplied from a large Root's fan. The patterns are moulded in three kinds of sand—ordinary sand, dry sand, and loam. In the ordinary sand general work is moulded. In the dry sand ore cast cylinders for steam engines and intricate work requiring very firm and regular moulds. In the loam large bridge cylinders and such like things are east. Some of the latest castings were sole plates for engines, steam cylinders, columns, point boxes., chairs, and other articles for railways. It would make a long list if all the articles produced in the foundry were enumerated, for it would include nearly everything used in engineering and in engineering works. Near the foundry is a large stove for the purpose of drying cores or moulds, such as are needed to form the hollow parts of steam chests and cylinders or any of the moulds used in dry sand process. From the foundry we went to tha fitting and machine shops, but this branch and others that we saw are important enough to demand another article.