THE OAMARU BARBED WIRE FACTORY.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3633, 5 March 1883, Page 4

THE OAMARU BARBED WIRE FACTORY.

(North Otago Times.) It is now sumo six months since the Oamaru Barbed Wire Factory was formed, and the encouragement given to the promoters of this local industry, the success of their first efforts, and tho rapid increase in the demand for their manufactures, rendered it necessary, not long afterwards, for the management to errect capacious premises for the carrying on of the factory. They therefore secured the lease of a convenient and ccnteral section at the comer of Severn mid Coquet streets, and, uuelerthc architecture of Messrs Forrester and Lemon, built thereon tho large factoiy anel warehouse which, recently completed, forms a conspicuous object in that part of the town. The building covers an area of -jj- of an acre, and is built -li the most approved modern warehouse style.

Tho method of the manufacture of barbed wire patented by the inventors is an exceedingly interesting one, and the ingemiity disp'layeel iv the constriction of some parts of the machinery reflects no little credit on tlie patentees. By this time the appearance of the wire when ready for use has become so familiar in divers parts of the colony, by reason of its extensive use, that it needs no description. Tho processes, however, through winch the raw material passes pre-A-ious to its transfiguration aro sufnciontly iuterestiug for some explanation. Tho material of which the barbs arc made is the best Staffordshire hoop iron. Thi'f, in its imported condition, is covered with minute scales, which are invisible to the eye, and impalpable to the touch, but which, nevertheless, have to be removed before the material is fit for use. The iron then, for the removal of these minute particles, is steeped in a bath of sulphmic acid, from which it is taken perfectly clean, anel ready for use. It then passes., into the punching- machines, presided over, as are all parts of the machinery, by boys, who punch out the barbs in the flat. The flat barbs are now handed over to the benders, whose machines shape them ready for insertion into the twisted wire. These punching and bending machines are worked by a separate 2 h.p. water motor; and as the demand for barbs from tho other department of the factory considerably exceeds the supply by the present method of punching, "a double shift is here constantly at work. We now follow the process undergone by the raw wire. The coils arc ■first -wound off on to reels, each of which takes one hunelrcdweight of wire, and a duplicate set of reels is provided for each. The reels aro then fitted in position on the spinning machines, of ivhich, in a few days, there will be six iv full-work. Each spinning machine holds three reels of wire. The reels are fixed on a hollow horizontal shaft, and the wire passing from the reels through tlie shaft is drawn out by a large horizontal draw-wheel, being twisted as it goes. At

the end of the shaft opposite tho drawwheel is a horizontal circular steel plate, like a circular saAi- without the teeth, having slits all round its circumference, in which are inserted the barbs, the plate revolving slowly, aud being kept constantly supplied with barbs a boy superintending the The most ingenious part of the machine is connected with this operation of barbing the wire. Underneath this horizontal plate a spindle with forked end, working backAvards and forwards at regulated intervals, catches a barb from tlie plate, thrusts it forward between the Avires as they tAVist in tlie hollow shaft, aud retreats to repeat the operation as tlie Avire, now barbed and ready for use, is drawn out by the draAV-Avhecl, and thence Avound into reels ready for the market. Tlie ivholc of the spinning machines are worked from one main shaft, driven by two Avater motors, Avith an aggregate power of 0 horse. The whole of" the machinery iv the factory is from the foundry of Messrs Hendry and _ Turner, made under the direction of tho inventors and patentees, Air AY. 11. Rock and Mr J. Lees. Both iron and steel Avire are used in the factory, and the have lately begun"to galvanized wire. There had * been originally found to bo some difficulty in using galvanized Avire, owing to the fact that the' galvanism scaled off in tlie twisting process; this difficulty has now, however, been completely overcome, and they aro now preparing to galvanize their oavii Avire for use. Tlie factory gives employment to some 32 boys, besides two men, "three boys being required for each spinning machine, and the double shift of punchers and benders consisting of twelve. Several improvements have been made in the machinery since the commencement of the industry, and more important and timesaving ones arc iioav iv process of perfection. One of these, which is now nearly complete, is the fitting of self-winders and oilers to receive the" perfect barbed wire. Four different sizes of ivire arc turned out of the factory, the reels averaging from 18 to 29 chains" in length per civt. AVhen the six spinning machines are in full operation tlie factory" will turn out 30 tons of wire per month. The Company's export trade is a. large one to all parts of -New Zealand, and the industry is meeting ivith a full meed of the success "ivhich the enterprise of its projectors so throughly deserves.