SECONDARY INDUSTRY

Southland Times, Issue 20633, 3 November 1928, Page 4

SECONDARY INDUSTRY

ESTABLISHED AT GORE. AN INTERESTING INVENTION. In times when the importance of developing secondary industries within the Dominion is becoming more and more apparent it is encouraging and interesting to find that a factory has recently been established in Gore for the manufacture of an electric washing machine which, it is claimed, compares more than favourably both in regard to efficiency and price, with those imported from America and elsewhere. The invention and manufacturer, Mr R. S. Lange, electrical engineer, first commenced experimenting with the new machine in February last and after meeting with and overcoming many difficulties had the first demonstration model completed a few days before the commencement of Gore’s Gaietj r Gala. During the gala week the machine attracted a great deal of attention and those who saw it in operation were very favourably impressed with its capabilities, so much so that in that week alone Mr Lange had received 89 orders in advance. With such an assurance of its success Mr Lange entered wholeheartedly into the problem of manufacture, with the result that early next week the first six machines will be completed. In the meantime Mr Lange has a staff of eight, each skilled in his branch of the work, employed in manufacturing his machine which in the meantime will be turned out at the rate of six per week. Early in the New Year, however, manufacture will he undertaken on a larger scale and in this Mr Lange’s experience is mass production gained with another Southland inventor and manufacturer, Mr J. Macalister, and with Messrs A. and T. Burt, Dunedin, should stand him in good stead. The latest machinery anh methods of manufacture will be employed and everything will be carried out under the supervision of Mr Lange, who will make a personal test of each machine before it leaves the factory.

When shown through the factory yesterday by Mr Lange a Southland Times representative was keenly interested in the various processes of manufacture and in the appearance of durability which the new machine possesses. One of its great attractions lies in the fact that, distinct from the imported machines which washes, blues, rinses and dries the clothes, the locally manufactured machine also boils the water by means of electricity. The boiling attachment has yet to receive the approval of the Public Works Department, but Mr Lange is confident that this will not be withheld as there is no apparent reason why there should be any objection to it. Another very attractive feature of the local machine, and one which should strongly appeal to country users, is the fact that it uses only seven gallons of water as compared with 16 used by the imported machine. This in itself should be an important consideration to farmers particularly in the summer months when it is necessary to conserve their water supply as much as possible.

To manufacture a more efficient article at an equal cost to the imported one would in itself be an achievement which should commend itself to the public, but Mr Lange states that he is going further than that and that his machine will cost from £lO to £l2 less than those imported from other countries. The elimination of the middleman’s profit and the reduction of delivery costs to a minimum would enable him to place the machine on the market at the low price of £3B 10/-. This,

of course, would exclude the boiled attachment which could only be used in cases when an electric range has been installed. While doing away with all the labour which made washing a drudgery to the busy housewife the cost would also be reduced to a minimum by the new machine, which would do this work at the very low rate of eightpence per hour. Referring to his experiment and to the gradual and successful development of his invention Mr Lange stated that it had been his desire to produce something which would make a popular appeal, both in respect to its usefulness and to its economy, and in this he hoped that he had been successful. The orders he was receiving from day to day led him to believe that there was a wide scope for the marketing of his invention and that in time it would develop into an important branch of industry.— 3/11/28.