A VISIT TO A CORDIAL FACTORY. MESSES. THOMSON, LEWIS & CO.

Evening Post, Volume LIII, Issue 115, 17 May 1897, Page 2

A VISIT TO A CORDIAL FACTORY. MESSES. THOMSON, LEWIS & CO.

It may be a matter for speculation what the people will drink in the predicted days when sealed samples of those liquids manufactured by Speight & Walker will be exhibited as rarities in the public museum. If intoxicants are legislated out of existence, non-intoxicants — which already insidiously mix themselves with the " long beer " and the " whisky squash " — will have to take their place down the national throat. The firm of Messrs. Thomson, Lewis & Co., mineral water manufacturers, the extension of whose business has compelled them to move into larger quarters in Tory-street, is a business concern which supplies these non-intoxicating beverages, and above all things aims at the absolute purity of its varied output. The firm does not pride itself on competing with other establishments as to price, but it does compete as to quality. And this is, after all, the most important point. The manufactured drinks of Thomson, Lewis & Co. are well known throughout the colony, on the large steamboats, and elsewhere. There are branches of the business in Dunedin, Invercargill, Mosgiel, Wanganui, and Otaki. The famed natural mineral water from the Wai-rongoa springs (near Mosgiel) are bottled by this firm. In April last the old premises in Lomestreet were vacated for the old Princess Theatre in Tory-street. This building was thoroughly renovated and altered, a new j floor was put in, the stage was done away with, and .large additions made to the building. The design of the factory was conceived by Mr. Alfred M. Lewis, manager of the North Island branch of the business— a practical man who has served his apprenticeship in London, and knows every branch of his trade. A visit to the factory made by a representative of this journal found everything in a most prosperous and thriving condition. On entering the building there are two offices, one being that of Mr. Lewis and the other the clerical department. Almost the whole of the ground floor is taken up by the factory, flanked on every aide by great crates of bottles. After the water has been purified in four largo tanks it is conveyed to a large aerated water plant, driven bj r a 61 h.p. Otto gas engine. Two copper automalic generators make carbonic acid gns, which, alter being specially purified, is pumped with the purified water into a large copper cylinder. It leavas this vessel as carbonated water, aud, receiving the

syrup that gives it its special character, hurries off to five bottling machines. One of these, an automatic steam bottler, receives at one end an | empty bottle aud a cork, and shoots out of a slide a full bottle, corked and ready for the two waiting " wirers." The other three fillers are lor the patent stoppered bottles, and are together capable of filling 180 dozen in an hour. The syphon bottles, especially designed for the sicK-room, are as cleverly filled by a special machine as are the corked bottles. Owing to the fact that all returned bottles are washed more than once before being again used, the firm last summer did not receive a single complaint that any dirt had got into its products. And, indeed, seeing the scrupulous cleanliness that pervaded the building, it was hard to imagine how an} r dirt could find its way into the goods that are branded " Thomson, Lewis and Co." On this floor is the packing-room. Sturdy beams support a new story, reached by a staircase. Here isf an enormous number of crates of_ bottles,' sacks of corks, and | other supplies. ' Here are also great casks containing the syrups, whence tubes lead down to the bottling machines. A feature of this arrangement is that the syrups never come into contact with the air, thus obviating all possibilities of contamination. All the stores kept are of the best quality, imported direct. In this department are a corking and a capsuling machine. Other casks and vats contain cider, bitters, limejuice, &c. Prom the private laboratory, where the experiments are conducted, there came a most appetising scent of ginger, fruit, and spices. Outside is a yard, in which are stored 10,000 dozen pint bottles, and behind is one of the cleanest and neatest of stables,;witb. stalls for seven horses, which draw the firm's well-known delivery traps,.. -Fifteen hands are employed in the business, of whom only three are boj's, as the firm believes in employing men and paying men's wages. Altogether the business appears to have earned a well-deserved prosperity.

He was jtrying to fell them the story, It was broken by coughs and by spits, And the points of it cams very slowly, By starts, as it were, and by fits, And ttey eaid, " You should take something for it. Something that is ¦wholesome and pure." And he said, " I'll be all right to-morrow, For I'm taking Woods'B Great Peppermint Cure." — Advt.