A Local Industry.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 131, 2 December 1896, Page 2

A Local Industry.

One of the oldest established local industries in Feilding is that of Mr W. Summers' cordial factory. The building is 60 feet long by 40 feet wide, a portion of which has a loft. It is divided for convenience into a manufacturing rootp, bottle washinp room, two storerooms, and dispensing room where the syrups for cordials are kept and prepared. There is, also, a cool concrete cellar capable of holding several tons of ice, which Mr Summers intends to keep in stock dnring the hot weather. The motive power for driving the different machinery is a two-horse power kerosene engine, of a very compact design, very clean in its work and taking up but little room. The aerator chiefly used is a No. 1 " Criterion," a machine which is capable of producing about 600 dozen fnll size or 1200 dozen "split" size bottles per day, This machine includes a gasometer, generator, solution pan and acid box. The gas for aerating puris produced from carbonate of sods and sulphuric acid. The factory ie, also, provided with a smaller aerating plant kept for the purpose of assisting in the quicker manufacture and supply of orders when there is a rush on. The spring water used in the manufacture of aerated waters is first filtered through a patent charcoal cistern filter to remove any deleterious matter which might be in the water. After passing through the filter the water is stored in a slate tank where it is kept pure and cool until it is connected with the aerating machine and used in the preparation of the cordials, &c. One of the most interesting and important machines in the factory is the ice-making machine which Mr Summers has just fitted up for the manufacture of ice for use in bis factory and for sale besides for cooling hn factory in hot weather. This machine makes ice on the ether principle. The refrigerator, a copper tubular vessel, is charged with the requisite quantity of either, which, by action of the vacuum pump, is evaporated, drawn off in the form of vapour and passed into the condenser, where, under a slight pressure and by the help of a stream of water, it is again reduced to its liquid state and then returns to the refrigerator to be again re-evaporated.. To utilise the cold produced by the evaporation of the ether for ice making, the refrigerator is placed in the ice tank, with the moulds which contain the water which it is intended to freeze into blocks of * ice. An uncongealable liquid (strong brine) is circulated by means of a fan revolving in the space containing the refrigerator, which drives the brine through the tubes of the latter, where the cold is imparted to the brine. It is then circulated around the outside of the ice moulds, cooling in so doing the water they contain ; then it passes back to the refrigerator to be re cooled and is again circulated as described until tbe water in tbe moulds is frozen into solid blocks of perfectly hard and transparent ice. Two and a half hulldredweigbts of ice can be made in twenty-four hours by this machine. By tbe institution of this machinery, Mr Summers is now prepared to supply ice to any persons who desire to secure it. There are two patent-bottle (turn-over) fillers, one being used expressly for soda water, and one of Barnett and Foster's (London) latest corking machines, Sir Summers is kept busy all tbe year round, having two men regularly "employed to assist him, while he has to mgage an extra man during tbe hot veather to assist in the manufacture of )is aerated waters and cordials, some orty varieties of which be makes. We lave no doubt Mr Bummers' enterprise d providing his factory with a refriger* tor will be appreciated by his numerus customers.