BETTANY'S WOOL SCOURING WORKS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 2, 13 November 1878, Page 2

BETTANY'S WOOL SCOURING WORKS.

We yesterday paid a visit to the extensive wool scouring establishment recently erected by Messrs Bettany & Son on the mudflat, and which is now in full operation. The building ig a two-storeyed one 91 feet x 30 feet with 18 feet studs. Upstairs is a fine roomy apartment where the wool is stored, and the sorting, which employs three hands, is performed. A nine horse power engine and 25 horse power boiler are used for driving the machinery and supplying the steam for the heatiDg required in the various processes to which the wool is subjected, and which are as follows: — Having been sorted upstairs, it is passed down to one end of the lower room through an aperture in the floor. Here is a tub in which the soap is boiled and reduced to a liquid state by the injection of steam. A sufficient quantity of this having been placed in the trough it is then filled with water, heated and kept up to the requisite temperature by steam. In" this the wool is soaked for a few minutes, and then taken out and placed on the floor in a heap, from which a boy feeds a pair of rollers that take it into one end of another trough 29 feet in length, filled with cold water, through which it is passed by a series of four pronged forks set in motion by machinery and worked with the utmost regularity. At the opposite end to that at which it is put into the trough, it is, after being passed slowly through the water, laid hold of by an implement known as a " devil," which tears it and theu passes it on to the wringing machine which consists of two rollers, in going between which it is subjected to a pressure of eight tons. It then (alls on to the floor, and as quickly a3 possible is placed on the drying machine, which consists of an arch of wire netting i 8 feet long and six in breadth, beneath which the air is heated by means of steam pipes, and six fans are at work which set the heated air in motion, and also create a sufficient draught to keep the wool on the arch flapping about. In this way two bales of wool per hour can be dried. Mr Bettany, however, finds that, although thia was the largest drying machine procurable, it is not equal to drying the amount of wool that can be turned out by the scouring machine, and is consequently compelled to resort to the

slower process of sun drying a large quantity of it. After being thoroughly dried it 19 placed in the bale in the steam press, where with a pressure equal to, 15 tofts it is so closely packed that nearly 4 cwt of s'coiired wool can be stowed in an ordinary sized bale. The bales are then sewn up, marked, and are fit for exportation. The whole of the water required for these extensive works, which afford regulnr employment to fifteen hands, is supplied from the Maitai river by a centrifugal pump . \Vorked ( by steatli; which is capable of raising 25D_ gallons per tuiniite, and orei-y arrangement is" made for draining oft' the water as soon as it hag performed the work required of it. With' the aid of the splendid machinery he has procured Mr Bettany can scour 100 bales per week, and he hopes during the season to ship at least 2000 bales, which will go a long way towards defraying the large outlay which has been necessary to bring the. whole apparatus to the perfect state m which it how k-, Arrangements have been made for the purchase of 1000 bales iv Wanganui, and the remainder wiH be bought iv small lots in the Waimeasand the small sheep farms on the coasts of Blind Bay and the Pelorus Spund. The building, which was put up by Mr Good, h all erected of Nelson grown and sawn timber, and is painted with hematite paint of Nelson manufacture. The boiler is also of Nelson make, having been turned out at the Anchor Foundry by Mr A. Brown, who also superintended the erection and fitting of the whole of the complicated machinery. In Mr Betlany we have an iuStjince df wlidfc may be done by an intelligent hard working man. From a very small beginning indeed he has gone on improving his works until he is now the proprietor of one of the largest establishlishmehts in the Colony, fitted with every description of machinery, iv which are to be found all the latest improvements. We congratulate him most heartily on the success he has achieved, and sincerely tnisfc that he and his son may long continue the prosperous career on which they have entered.