Strang's Colfee and Spice Works.

Southland Times, Issue 9165, 15 March 1886, Page 2

Strang's Colfee and Spice Works.

_ Among the most successful of our local industries, among the best examples we have of what may be achieved from small beginnings by dint of energy and perseverance, intelligently applied, is the coffee, pepper and spice manufacturing business carried on in Invercargill by Mr D. Strang. In 1872 Mr Strang made a start in the iudustry which has since assumed such considerable proportions, the extent of his operations then being confined to eupplying the town with the articles he turned out. In these days his appliances were of a primitive kind, and he had to resort to all sorts of expedients to carry on his business. For instance he was without the necessary apparatus for grinding the coff c and spices, and had to t&ke bis raw materials to a local flour mill to get thpm ground. The business grew, the sale of his products extended as their qualities became inowo, and in time he was -doing a comfortable steady trade with a plant similar to that uaed by other manufacturers, But Mr Strang was not content to plod on in the beaten track, he could not keep in the groove so placidly followed by hid less enterprising feilowtradßsmen. The process in vogue for roasting coffee did not satisfy him, and he set to work to devise a better. Tho outcome of his labours was the new hot-air prooess— since patented in Eogland, Aus tralia, and New Zealand — a process which has from that time been attended with the most satisfactory and successful results. The nature of the new method and theadvantages connected with it have been described previously in our columas. The process is generally admitted to be a vaßt improvement on the old system of roasting, and its principle haa been adopted for such purposes as drying hope, while there ia a probability that it soon will be experimentally applied to bread and biscuit, baking, drying grain, etc. With the new process of manufacture there was a marked i,nprovement in the quality of the article produced, and Mr Strang's business increased so rapidly that he soon found his old premises opposite the Police Station in JE>fe street too small for his extensive operations. He has therefore had works erected further up the same street, a short distance east of the Temparancd Hdll, aad he is now comfortably established in new and commodious premises. The building fronting the street has had previous o jcu-~ pants, but so thoroughly has it been renovated by Mr Strang as to be practically new. At the rear he has built, from the designs of Mr A. Kerr, the works proper, a brick building 50 feet by 30 feet, with concrete floor, and consisting of one large airy department round which are placed the various mills and other machines. The motive power is obtained from a wellfinished and remarkably compact eight horse-power horizontal engine, the 12 feet boiler fo,r which is of looal manufacture. Qloge tg tho toiler in the western side of the building is the hot air apparatus for roasting the ooffee beans. The cylinder is capable of containing 200 pounds of the fflW material at one. ra.as.tj an,4 xm^ ftlpng^

a shaft or rail out of and into the hot air chamber^ After the roasting ia done the cylinder is drawn from the chamber and the berries discharged into the cooler, whioh consists of a narrow box with a bottom of wire cloth similar to that of the cylinder, and an arrangement on the bellows principle by which cold air is driven up through the berries. The grinding ie the next process, and for that purpose one pair of 2ft. French burr stones are used, exactly as in flour milling, and then the various coffees are placed in the blending machine to be thoroughly mixed without that loss of strength and aroma which results when the worjc is done by hand"! The coffees to be mixed are placed in a large sheet iron cylinder with internal agitators, which rapidly rotates till the blending is complete. A door in the cylinder is then opened and the finished article discharged into a receiving chamber ready for tinning. For the grinding of the peppers and spices one pair of 3 feet and two pairs of 2 feet French burr stones are used. These are encased in ironwork and fitted up most substantially, the Castings having all been locally made, and the whple erected under the superintendence of Mr James Mentiplay. The appearance of the ironwork has been rendered neat and attractive through Mr C. Tapper's skill aa a painter ; in fact our impression had always been that Mr Strang had imported these mills as they stand. After being ground the mills empty tho material into a long narrow trough, in which an Archimedian screw works it along to the elevators. These convey it to the "cilks," a d^es-jing machine whence it falls into the receiving chambers ready for packing. The whole contrivance is on the same principle as that adopted in flour mills, and works most satisfactorily at a minimum cost for labour. The various machines are placed in the positions in which they can be most con\eaientiy worked, and the irrangemenis as a whole are as complete as Mr Strang's ingenuity and experience could make them. It is to be hoped that the plant will be kept in continuous and profitable occupation, and that ere long Mr Strang will again find it necessary to increase its producing powers.