WORKSHOP WASTE

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18347, 2 April 1925, Page 4

WORKSHOP WASTE

THE MANUFACTURE OF

FIRELIGHTERS

"Wc often read of fortunes being made from the conversion of waste into useful commodities, and this probably is the reason why some joinery manufacturers cast a regretful eye upon the shavings and planer chips, which have daily to be got rid of, says the "Illustrated Carpenter ami Builder." Many, where space is available, burn them as they accumulate; others send them to the loc.nl destructor, and often have to pay for the destruction of this trade waste. Sometimes firelighter makers will take them away, when it suits their convenience; we have known cases where joiners were only too glad to fill them into sacks and place on rail free of charge. In iSouthall there is one very large firm who used to advertise their chips as l'ree to all who cared to take them away, but for the last ten years they have burnt all their waste 111 a. gas producer plunt instead; this is the best possible manner to convert and dispose of such dangerous and bulky debris. • I)o not lie beguiled into embarking into a side line, which, although appearing very rosy, may easily lead to loss of money; wc speak from bitter experience. The large profits held out by the vendors of firelighter machines arc very elusive and difficult to secure.

Bundled wood is manufactured by some workhouses, and sold at a very low rate; the Salvation and Church Armies also employ labour in - thin trade, and every hard-up person who can buy and chop up old packing-cases is a competitor, with the result that prices are cut so fine that thcro is no margin left. Firelighters. In JO 12, 1000 firelighters fetched I.Ss 9d, and were retailed at ten for 31d. These were made of four sticks surrounding a handful of pinner chips, tied with wire, tho" ends being dipped into melted naphthalene. At that time crude jinphtlialenc cost £3 per ton. plus carriage; later it soared up to £!). Old pit props wcro the cheapest source of timber, but not always available; at tho outbreak of war they could not be obtained at all. Bail way sleepers, too, went off, and the shiploads of short ends ceased to arrive; sawn laths then filled the gap; these are quite good, and take the minimum of timber The wood has to be chopped and cut into mil lengths; this requires a, circular saw if it is to be cheaply done, and whilst most of the wood is chopped by girls piece-woirk, there are splitting machines, ranging in cost from (in 1912) £!) to £2Bi>, which latter arc said to split twenty tons of wood i» ten hours. To avoid this outlay it is best to purchase bundled wood, and so cut otft all machinery, labour, and heavy insurance premiums; moreover, you have no idle machinery in slack times. Foot presses were sold by different firms at from £4 to £0 each, and although they made a very good lighter, we never could get the output the makers claimed as possible. Some lighters are made of sawdust and naphthalene, compressed either by foot or power plant. A firm in Leeds marketed a rotary press, power driven, and fed by three boys, which they claimed would turn out 150 gross of lighters in ten hours, showing a daily profit of £8 on the sale of this quantity. An Ingenious Machine, This,was a very ingenious machine; tho table made a quarter revolution, stopped, then started again, one set of moulds being filled each time it stopped, the cycle- of operations being filling, compressing, ejecting, the bottom of tho moulds being pressed up by toggles and an eccentric, and then, running on an inclined track, brought tho composed cakes to tho table top. For thia machine £285, plus a royalty of Jd per gross for seven years, was aslced, and as the royalty might easily have come to £IOO a year, the machine would cost somewhere about £IOOO.

Doterred by this excessive figure, olio man, aftor three months' experiment, designed an improved machine actuated b\' that delightful device known as the Maltese Cross, and after all his trouble finally abandoned the trado as unprofitable. ' In passing, we may point out that the Maltese Cross device is used on all cinema projectors and cinema film cameras, and is worth inspecting by those of a mechanical bent. A traveller must be employed to secure orders; transport has to be considered. The chip lighters arc generally tied up in bundles of ten, and then dipped each end in the melted naphthalene; as this substance is costly, do not dip them in too far; thick creosote oil can be mixed with it to make the naphthalene go further, but too much oil will prevent setting, and make the lighter too lose. The moßt primitive way to melt the naphthalene is in a self-setter copper, but this is very wasteful, for it evaporates, and therefore a steam jacketed pan is advisable. This means that unless waste steam is available the expense of buying and working a steam boiler is incurred. It must not be forgotten that there is considerable' risk of fire, and an extra premium is necessary to cover this. Wc know a ease of a private dwelling being set. alight owing to firelighter manufacture being carried on. Quite a good firelighter can be homo made by soaking coke in paraffin. Enough has been written to show that a fair outlay is necessary to make a aucccss of this business, and as it can only be made to pay by sweated labour it is a trade best left alone.

In spite of the serious statement about the tottering condition of the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral, London, shopkeepers of the vicinity, who would be overwhelmed with disaster if it fell, do not appear to spend sleepless nights in contemplation of that calamity. TJnderwriteis at Lloyd's offered to ' write" the risk at 6d per £IOO for 12 months, both building and stock. Only, a few policies have been taken out. The underwriters are doing more, though perhaps not much, in the insurance of the safety of tho Aquitania or the Cedrio bv people whose interests in those vessels is remote, or by a speculation in the birth of twins to a family whose interest in that domestic event is more direct.