FACTORY LIFE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 781, 2 April 1910, Page 11

FACTORY LIFE.

MAKING WAX MATCHES. Everyone in town knows that a largo number of .girls aro employed , at the match factory opposite the Newtown Museum, but probably very fow have the least idea of what their work thero is, beyond the fact that it probably has something to do with' phosphorus. Well,- that is quite true, and yet the girls,. of whom there are about a hundred employed, have nothing to do with the'phosphorising of the matches. Their work begins. at the very beginning—with the.waxing of the thread that is imported in gigantic reels. From a' reel at one side of the , room it goes to a huger reel at the other, passing through a trough filled with melted wax as it goes. , It is by this trough that the. girls stand, regulating the movement,'and sending tho cotton five times, through the liquid, so that it may ■be thoroughly saturated and coated. The cotton is divided ;into about seventy threads as it passes through, and the reel when wound up holds just on a hundred miles of waxed vesta wick.

Another set of girls are employed at curious little machines, through which rows of wick-ed ends come,' to be chopped off in bits of little more than an inch in length. This is an ingenious machine, and at tho end of the process there is a tray full' of matches, all standing upright, and sandwiched in between bars of metal. Ttfeso are piled tray, above tray in.a crate, and taken to where two men, working in the open air, smear great slabs of stouo with steaming paste of a most heavenly blue. . This is 4 preparation of phosphorus, and the peading of the matches js._a very simple operation, each tray being pressed down on to the mixture, taken up. and : replaced in the crate, till all are done, and put away to dry in a etrong room whose'floor is covered inches deep with sand. The girls' work is the packing of these matches, and about eighty of them work in the largo room whero tho thread is waxed. They 'work- at rows and. rows of tables, and the work must become so purely mechanical that one likes to think thoy have abundant opportunities for conversation/ as they work very close together." Some of them aro very young, just past school age, and the work does not take long to learn They take tho trays,'remove the matches, and place them in tho little round boxes, or the long flat ones, and' while they work as-quickly as they can, tor they are paid for piece-work, obviously it does not do'to handle little bunches of wax matches 'too hastily Ibo visitor-is naturally much impressed with the inflammability' of the material with which the tables are covered, and she notices; every'little crack'as a match goes 'Off under foot, or every time thero is a little-spurt from one of tho tables, , But probably the workers themselves luever notice it.

|. The room is a very large one; there is plenty of light and air, and the work strikes one as being clean. Tho trouble must be that it is so purely mechani- ' i P e do not vary their work, and tho girl who one day is packing matches into little round boxes is not found next day ..arranging those boxes in dozens and with a skill'ul flick fold-ing-and-fastening; the paper over them. Jiacn, girl' has her own work and she sticks to it, but since thero is little choice m the interest of the. different processes probably this does'hot matter-

There is no season in ' the .match month, those httlo boxes are filled from : b ? * r , avs . and tho dozens are mado up into, brown paper, packets, • and the packets are set in rows to bo. glued and W i oWn ' Some of the employees have, been engaged inthe business for est girl, have only., just come, but hero as everywhere else, tho cry .'is, "Wo cannot get enough girls " , Not only are tho matches,made at them in. The bos factory has a largo building to itself, an d most of the wo?k » done by women and girls. - Opposite the. main door is. a huge -revolving wheel, liie. a potters wheel ona ver? large scale, just beside it stands another machine, through which a constant stream of brown paper - comes - p™ under a roller which covers ha f or it with glue, and passing on to lengths, and there a to take oft each divided bit and lay it on the. revolving table, which in turn xarneSi. n?,° wom en who sit-around each with her little machine to roll that thick paper into long cylinders, the bemnmgoi the matchboxes. The next : part of the process is entrusted to a gang of men and boys, who'work a machine that cuts each cylinder into the proper lengths. The making of a match-box is an elaborate process ilero nre several machines under the charge of women, whore each matchbox hd is made Another potter's wheel of.iron, edged with little compartments, ,s set going. Each compartment holds a fraction of tartancovered boxing, and as it passes below an -upright tube charged with cardboard tops, these .are jammed into the cylinder, and the lid is so finished In a similar way tho rough bottom of tho box, where the smoker always strikes his matches, if there is nothing else ho can possibly use, is fixed in position!' and, then very laboriously-, by hand these linings are pasted into the tartan covering,: and the match-bos, behold it is. fiwshed. Half a dozen women more or less, are engaged in this part of the work, perhaps twenty altogether in the box factory. -• ' "■ Messrs, 801 l and Sons are at present enlarging their premisea, and in about two months' time they expect to have everything ship-shape, and to bo ready to start their factory for. making safety matches,-where,of course a variety of different processes will have to be car ned on, and still more girls will be re-

A London correspondent is responsible for the statement that everybody Is skip, ping this irater. Stout pe O s skip to grow'thm, thm p?op]e skip b^cans6 P a nf,,m T rf "SuTf i'-* 3 " ,8 to make them plump. Elderly ladies are skippbe, in the hope that agility will keep their figures, youthful in appearance,' elderly gentlemen indulge in the pastime because it isi said to ; .bo good.for the liver. So, m flats, in villas, in chambers, in lodging-houses, and in hotels, evervbodv commences the day by jumping over a hempen cord. ■ . The proprietor of a.draper's establish-' ment heard an assistant say to a customer,"!™, we have not had any for a long tune." Looking sternly at the assistant, he said to the customer "Wo have plenty-m- reserve, ma'am-plenty downstairs!" The customer looked Wed, and then, to the amazement of the nroprietor burst into laughter, and left the shop. "What did she say. to you?" demanded the proprietor of the assistant. latel !' a " * any rain v WEATKEE AND THE SKIN. Don't got it into your head that onlv dry hot weather is trying to the complexion.. All outdoor conditions are trv ing: wet or dry, hot or cold. Tho -win ter is sometimes harsher in its effects on the sldn than the summer is The thing to do is to so stimulate and feed and fortify the skin that it can stand any conditions without danger of injury To obtain that perfect skin health you must use John Strange Winter's inimitable skin lotion, "Lakshmi." I n bottles 33. 6d. from all dealers in highclass toilet requisites, or 3s. 9d post free, plainly wrapped, from tha John Strange Winter Company, 228 Nathan's Building, Wellington.—Advt.