OUR INDUSTRIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1652, 21 July 1883, Page 14

OUR INDUSTRIES.

OTAGO HANDS AND HEARTS.

No. IV.— At the Cloth-mills. The manufacture of woollen goods in this district is, like many other of the local industries, the outcome of the prudent foresight of the governing body who in the year 1870 offered a bonus of £1500 for the establishment of woollen mills in Otago. The private enterprise of a flourmill owner at Mosgiel (Mr A. J. Burns) having led to the satisfactory fulfilment of tho conditions imposed, this amount was paid over about two years later to the firm of which this gentleman was the originator and .head. A little later on the now well-established business passed into the hands of a limited liability company, by whom it haß since been carried on. The venture thus successfully brought to an issue on the spreading levels of the Taieri Plain was succeeded by others in a locality similarly suitable by nature, and nearer the commercial centre of the district, the winding Kaikorai Valley being selected as the site for the mills of Messrs Williamson and Messrs Ross and (jlehdining. Of these two, however, the former has passed into the hands of the Mosgiel firm, who now share with Messrs Robs and Glendining the divided honours of tho cloth trade in this district. The importance of this particular manufacture, which gives employment to some 400 hands, can hardly be over-estimated, especially when it is remembered that it opens up a market for local prcduce, creates a demand for locally-manufac-tured chemicals, and in many other ways, direct and indirect, has a favourable effect upon other industries. At the same time it should not be lost sight of that enough, even of a good thing, is enough, and he who would haste to be rich by expending his capital on the erection of another factory of the sort in this vicinity would do well ' to take for his motto the words " Festina lente," for though the existing cloth-factories exhibit such indications of a thriving trade as are furnished by their employment of a " night shift," yet it is questionable whether they are not strong enough to satisfy for some time to come the demands of the market. Having, by the courtesy of those in authority, obtained a card of admission to one or other of the abovenamed mills, the visitor will find himself most politely received, and will be supplied by his quide — the manager of the works — with such information concerning the nature and object of the many processes and machines as will tend to render his tour of inspection no less instructive than entertaining. On entering the premises, the visitor's attention will first be turned to the stores, where in huge bins lie piles on piles of assorted wools. Bought, in some cases, in mixed quantities , the fleeces have to paas through the hands of a keen-eyed and quick-fingered sorter before they are thus stocked for use in the early future. The dyeing-rooms form the next object of interest, with their Turneresque blotches and splashes of colour,

And all around the walig and ground With recent blood besprent. Such, at least, is the first impressiou produced by the stains of logwood and other dyes. At Mosgiel may especially be noticed tho indigo vat, which is worked on a principle quite different from that which regulates the others. When it is yarn that has to be dyed instead of wool, the use of a number of long sticks, like fat broom-handlea in appearance makes the observer fancy for a minute that he is gazing down into the pits of a tan- yard, and not into a dye-vat for wool. "Waste not want not "is one of old Richard's maxims that is here faithfully observed, for a modified form of mangle receives the stuff dripping from the vats and returns to these the surplus liquid It is only because the two buildings already named are in juxtaposition that we take them m this order, for it need scarcely be said that the washing or •' scouring" of the raw material must precede the more delicate ooeration whic has just been alluded to. And how ia this said "scouring" effected? By the simplest or means— and more, by the gentlest • into a trough that holds a tepid wash of soap and soda is gently thrust a "table" full of wool, and here it is gently pushed forward by a series of rakes (either of wood or of steel), which alternately dip into and rise slightly from the wate. Next comes the drying process, which is effected at this season of the year by means of hot air passing through the meshes of a finely-woven wire bed; in more favourable weather the sun aud air to be found in the spacious yards are the agents in this operation. To prepare the washed and dried fleeces for the carding " machines, the " dust willow "or shake- willy," or -but this particular contrivance spells its name in so many fashions that it is hardly necessary to allude to further modes of description— w employed, and then the teaser," by means of which two machines the particles of the wool are to a considerable extent disintegrated After a liberTanoSg with pure olive oil the material is pas Bede d on to W°nf X ? £"•? condenßin .e "^chines, from the m" Ln 'f i cn W" w the form of a strip or roll that has a 1 the appearance of fine cotton wadding, and tins is received and stored for the present on great " reels " or " ops " or bobbins "or " pirns." It i B well nigh an impossioihty for the casual stranger to distinguish nltZn? *«? 6X K Ct of these fouf implements, though each has its separate use and

shape. The four machines which accomplish the carding bear the names respectively of the ""scribbler," "carder," "clearer," and "condenser" (or " doubler "). . The stuff as it now appears is ready for the gentle influence of the which, with its adjuncts of twisting, reeling, and winding apparatuses, reduces it to the form of the yarn required for the " warping " and " weaving " machinery. Anything prettier in the way of engineering skill than the action of these spinning-inules can hardly be conceived, and the rapidity of their revolutions is another matter of wmder. But not so far as these even need the visitor who has a taste for the triumphs of mechanical skill pursue his way through the buildings ere his eye will be attracted by a fine illustration of the principle of centrifugal force as supplied by one particular form of the carders, where a roll of wool some feet in length and an inch or so in diameter revolves continuously with no support other than that afforded by the speed of its revolution. And now we will on to the weaving-room, where loom after loom is pounding away at its appointed task of working together the warp — already formed by an ingenious and elegant combination of spindles and wheels, which we have no room here further to describe — with the woof or weft. The product of the warpmill is often a gaudy combination of coloured yarns, out of which it would seem to the outsider a matter of sheer impossibility to manufacture a cloth that could be worn by the more respectable of the community, so " loud" is its general effect ; but just here is where comes in, with the utmost precision and a wondrously good result, the skill displayed it the construction of the pattern-frames, which are placed above the looms. These appear to the casual observer to be simply an arbitrary and abaurdlooking combination of pegs and holes, but it is in reality upon them that depends the certainty with which the shuttles that with alternate "bang " and " thud" fly to and fro in the loom, deposit in their right succession the many-coloured threads that turn the erstwhile conf used mass of threads into a cloth of elegant pattern— a thing of beauty, if not a joy for ever. The ever-changing hues presented to the eye of the loom-watcher while the process is going on need to be seen to be believed in ; but he whose life is spent as a rule in the quieter walks of life will be apt to leave this department of the factory before he has thoroughly mastered the technical mysteries and beauties it contains. The fact is the place is altogether too noisy for more than a hurried inspection, and that not through any fault of the numerous operatives. It is not on record that these are forbidden to speak to each other, but strong lungs indeed would they need who could carry on a prolonged conversation amid the whirr and clack of so many powerful machines. Powerful, indeed ; but how obedient to the will of man. Is a shuttle empty ? The woman in charge of the loam need but stretch forth her hand and the shuttles cease to fly, the ponderous comb that drags the threads together to move back and forth, and every wheel is arrested in its flying course. And now the cloth is made at last ; but is it finished ? Not by any means. Up here, at the end of the room, you ■will see a man standing, as in a tent, beneath a framework composed of four upright posts and a couple of crossbars, across which is stretched a great roll of cloth that droops xn many folds on either side. He is testing the newly-made stuff to detect and register any flaws that may have been allowed to creep into its texture. How rough and knotty it feels as we pass it through our fingers — it has net been " finished" ! Various processes in the way of washing and drying have next to be gone through, and the machinery by which these are effected is as interesting to the thoughtful inSj ector as any on the premises, notably the "hydraulic extractor," which, by the rapidity of its revolution, forces out from a roll of cloth or flannel, which is in no way pressed or squeezed, a larger quantity of fluid matter than we should have deemed it possible for it to contain. A product of Nature, pure and simple, is called into requisition for the purpose of " raising " a Burface on the cloth, m 1 the shape of the heads of the teazle arranged on the surface of a huge revolving wheel. Still many another little operation, manual and otherwise, has the fabric to be submitted to ere it is considered fit to be passed on to the warehouse, but so numerous are they that it is impossible here to describe them. The hosiery workshop, with its delicate aud swift-working frames, demands, too, a large share of our attention ; but even here the cunningest machine of all — the human hand — shows its superiority, and often does each workman stop the gear in front of him while he crochets a few necessary stitches. Boilers, engines, gas-houses, employes' cottages, el hoc genus omne, have all an interest of their own, but here they must perforce give way in import mcc, because in general interest, to the subtle achievements of man's ingenuity which are to be observed in every square foot of a woollenfactory.