WHAT THE EMPIRE EDITORS SAW AT PLATT'S.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 173, 14 August 1909, Page 3

WHAT THE EMPIRE EDITORS SAW AT PLATT'S.

One of the most interesting places visited by the Empire editors on their provincial tour was Messrs. Piatt Bros/, tbe great cotton machinery works at Oldham, which gives employment to 12,000 men. The editors) spent a whole afternoon going over these famous foundries, and doubtless our readers will, after reading the following facts, be as astonished as the editors were themselves at the gigantic 9calo oa which everything is done. Piatt's is the biggest firm in existence engaged in the manufacture of textile machinery. Mr. Heary Piatt, the founder of the firm, employed five workmen on the top floor of a little house in Oldham when he began the business. At present" the colossal industry is carried oa in what appears to be an endless succession jf workshops' and foundries, covering an aggregate area of sixty-five acres.

GIGANTIC WORKSHOPS. . Some notion of the amount of machinery turned out pay be gathered from the fact that Piatt's consume 45,000 tons of iron every year in such manufactures. In addition, over 300,000 cubic feet of Umber- is used in the construction of machinery alone; further large quantities are consumed for other purposes. Some of the various workshops' are of gigantic size. In one of three alone £OOO men are employed amidst a bewildering maze of machinery. The firm makes its own wrought-iron in its own \ forge, Piatt's undertaking the whole of the puddling processes. As an indication of the magnitude of the firm, it may be mentioned that there are several complete foundries- in the works, with some ten or eleven huge cupolas, from which over 900 tons of castings are turned out each week. Besides these there are brass and other foundries.

Owing to the large amount of material used, the wood yards are very extensive. The sawmills cover an area of eight acres, equipped with the most modern appliances'. These mills have a capacity for dealing with 500,000 cubic feet of timber every year, and in Piatt's timberdrying department there is a stock of 250,000 cubic feet of material.

HUGE SHIPMENTS EVERY WEEK. A special department is engaged in manufacturing packing-cases, 5,000,000 superficial feet of deal being used yearly it> order to provide packing for the machinery. The waste pieces of -wood are placed in a special machine which converts them into shavings. Piatt's pack their machines in such a manner that the cases can be placed on any side or pad without causing damage to the contents.

Near the packing shops there are trucks upon trucks loaded with machinery ready for transport. In fact, the output of Piatt's is eo great that £OO truck-loads and 170 lorry-loads of machinery .are sent away weekly. Fifteen thousand lengths of fluted rollers are produced weekly. It is interesting to watch the machines fluting the tollers; the work is practically automatic, machine after machine doing its awn work with only occasional human supervision. Throughout the premises no work is done by hand which can be accomplished more easily by machinery. At the spindle works' 1600 griss of ants, bolts, and screws arc made weekly, while 52,000 mule, ring, doubling, etc., spindles are made in the same period.

Numerous societies exist for the benefit of the workmen, and the firm privides many conveniences which are much appreciated by the employees. A large dining-hall is provided which is capable of stating over 3000 men. In order to provide a showroom for the manufactures of the firm a cotton mill has been bought, which is fitted up with the machines. It frequently happens that several hundreds of students from Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Cheshire technical schools avail themselves of the opfprtunity to Spend a Saturday afternoon in these well-equipped works and showrooms.

One special department of Piatt's ?s devoted exclusively to the work of investigation and research. Another department is occupied in looking through the specifications deposited in the Patent Offices of the world; when Platt'3 see particulars of any patent which is likely to be of use to them they place themselves in communication with the inventor, with a view to purchase the rights of the invention. PLATT'S OWN TUBE RAILWAY. la prder to provide facilities for handling the machinery, the new works of the firm arc provided with a subterranean railway, built by Piatt's themselves. Some of these subterranean passages are of the same diameter, and are built in the same manner, as London's new tube railways.

The waggons in these railways are drawn by electric locomotives, while large lifts are provided which carry the trucks from floor to floor of the lofty buildings. Owing to the system of subterranean railways, goods can be carried from any part of this branch of the undertaking without interrupting the work in progress in the various) department*.—Tit Bite.