OUR INDUSTRIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20766, 8 January 1931, Page 16

OUR INDUSTRIES.

JAMS ANI) PRESERVES.

PROCESS OF MANUFACTURE.

WORK IN MODERN FACTORY.

A FLOURISHING LOCAL INDUSTRY.

(This article is the eighth of a series which will be devoted to Isew Zealand 8 manufacturing industries.)

Jams, conserves, sauces and cordials are among the commodities of everyday life manufactured in Auckland by Thompson and Ilills, Limited, of Nelson Street. The present lime, with strawberries in season, is nrbusy one, and a large number of the 130 employees is now engaged in the process of making them into jams and conserves. Auckland is particularly well supplied with strawberries for jam, of which more is probably made here than anywhere else in New Zealand. Supplies of strawberries have been arriving at the factory for about a month past, and the supplies are expected to continue a little longer, the actual dale depending on the season. Seated at benches are to be seen many employees engaged in picking off hulls," the initial stage in the process. The supplies average about 60 cases a day, each case containing 16 chips. So great are the supplies on

some occasions that as many as 100 girls, some drawn from other departments, are employed in this work, one which they carry out with amazing rapidity. It is in the boiling-room that one gains the best idea of the factory's production. A long line of copper vats is to be seen, each one sending out a vast volume of steam. The steam heating, carefully regulated from the indicators of large-sized thermometers attached to the vats, creates a gentle boiling, disturbed at intervals by the ladles,- of a size in proportion to that of the vats and with which each man is provided. By a simple process of tipping, the contents, %vhen sufficiently boiled, are transferred to the copper cans of the watering-can type to be poured into the tins and jars, at this stage unlabelled.

Then there comes the sealing process, in which the tins and jars are automatically fitted 'with their tops preparatory to being washed and cooled. Travelling backward and forward through the cooler, a machine in which water is sprayed and a draught created by large fans, the tins are ready in about nine minutes to be carried by a conveyor to the labelling room a floor or

two above, where this work is accomplished with tho rapidity noticeable throughout tho process.

The tin-making process is one of a special department in which there are machines of many descriptions. To tho casual observer the process appears to be simplicity itself, judging by the rifpidity with which the tins are made. One sees a strip of tin pass through a machine in which it is clamped to form the body of the receptacle, pass along a conveyor at tho rale of about 120 a minute to be automatically soldered, transferred by a chute to a machine which forms tho flanges for the fitting of the tops and bottoms, and by means of an elevator and gravity conveyor go direct to the end-seaming machine, afterwards to bo disgorged coinplcto, without a hand having been used except for the' testing of an occasional one. There is a machine for everything. The tops and bottoms of tins are cut to the required size and form at a remarkable rate, the edges then being treated with s rubber solution, a process in which

they revolve through a slow-heating oven before they are ready to be attached. During the season the factory handles hundreds of tons of tomatoes for conversion into s;iuce, soup and puree. In the course of this operation the tomatoes proceed from tho unloading and weighing platform, over a sorting table, direct into a spacious mechanical washer, in which, while in a state of constant agitation, the tomatoes are cleaned by numerous highpressure water jets. From tho washer the (omaloes are automatically delivered direct into a 400-gallon glass-lin6d Vat, fitted with a high pressure steam coil, by means of which the fruit is rapidly boiled down to the required consistency, as ascertained by the latest scientific methods. The necessary sugar, vinegar, spices, etc., are then added, and the boiling continued until further tests show tliat the desired result has been attained. The valve at the bottom of the vat is opened and the sauce flows by gravity through an ingenious machine which removes the tomato skins, seeds, and foreign matter. The finished product then gravitates directly to the bottling machine, by means of which a number of pre-heated bottles are filled at a time, these in turn being speedily dealt with by the topp ; ng machine. After the filled bottles have passed through a steriliser,- the manufacturing process has been completed. All that remains is to attach iiio labels by en

electrically operated labeller, then wrap and pack, with suitable material, into the delivery cases.

In tracing the manufacture of candied peel one gains an insight Into a remarkable variety of processes. In following the treatment of a lemon . one first sees it cut into halves and the inside removed, the peel then being put into barrels of brine in which it is to be kept for three months. After this' treatment it is boiled, taken through a sugar process, passed through a drying-room and thea candied before being ready""for use. About 20 tons of sugar arc. used at the factory a week, and, as with everything else, the sugar is handled with the greatest of ease and. despatch. From a large container it is taken by a chute to the scales in the boiling-room, where it i» weighed and transferred to the vats. The Auckland Province provides all the necessary conditions for the successful culture of oranges in abundant quantities. While of splendid quality, the New Zealand oranges, known as the "poorman" variety, lack the sweetness required for dessert purposes, and therefore until a few years ago the problem was to find a market for this fruit. The solution of this problem is a striking instance of successful local co-operation between a primary

and a secondary industry, neither of which could have reached its present, flourishing state without the assistance of the other. While the orange-growers were fared with a poor and unremimeralive outlet, for their crops, the firm of Thompson and Hills, Ltd., were experimenting with New Zealand oranges, and after several trials were successful in proving that a high ciass marmalade could be produced from the " poorman " orange. Tho cases used for tin packing, of the firm's products are of white pine and in tho storeroom they are to bo seen stacked almost to the ceiling. For those boxes which arc returned to the factory there is a machine,to remove the old brands, thus making it possible to use them repeatedly. In every department one notices that scrupulous attention is paid to cleanliness, and even in the boiling room, with more than a dozen steaming vats, there> is scarcely a trace of the stickiness oi)8 usually associates with jam-making. While at the present time the number of employees is about 130, the number variet largely ■ according to the season. For -instance, now that supplies of P eal * wil 1 . be; corning forward there will bo a many as 100 girls engaged ;n deajing Hitn them, pears requiring both pee.mg anc trimming. Last year the factory used more than 10,000 bushels of pears.