OUR INDUSTRIES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 892, 8 February 1930, Page 6

OUR INDUSTRIES

This is the -first of a series of informative articles that will be published in THE SUN regularly throughout the year, describing many of New Zealand's most important industries.

RESTFUL MATTRESSES ARE MADE IN AUCKLAND

Ingenious Machinery

“ 'TWENTY years in bed!” That seems an absurd statement I to make, yet it is true that the average man spends one-tlur-d of his whole lifetime lying on mattresses. This huge slice of everyone’s life is surely sufficiently important to warrant them taking special interest in the history and manufacture of mattresses.

From the days when our crude forefathers lay down at nights on their bed of twigs in some draughty cave, to these days of luxury, when everyone uses soft, comfortable mattresses, there lies a whole world of endeavour. There was a time when critics could say that the brains of the world seemed to be devoted only to "commerce —and domestic life ran on in its old way—but that time is gone. For years clever brains have worked unceasingly at the task of lightening the work of women in the home, of making the home a pleasanter place to live in, at the task of bringing comfort to the kitchen and the bedroom. I Not the least part of this work was the improvement of the old-time hard ; bed, turning it into the hygienic, | luxurious bed that we all know, I through scientifically-made mattresses. For, although no one ever realises it, the common homely mattress is a symbol of our progress. Nor does anyone ever realise the amount of ingenuity that has gone into the designing of machinery to make mattresses. Machinery to make mattresses is probably “too tall a story” for some people to believe, but nevertheless, there is a large factory in the heart of Auckland that is turning out mattresses by machinery, by the dozens and scores every day. In it the most modern improved machinery is installed. The workmen are skilled and experienced in their special lines of work. The best of materials, carefully selected, clean and sanitary, are used. The net result is bedding, unsurpassed in quality. The average buyer cannot see this quality, nor by the nature of the product, determine it by examination. His or her only insurance lies in the reputation of the manufacturer and his factory. Come for a brief visit of inspection through the “Durodown” factory in Lome Street, which is owned by Howard, Abbott, Ltd. It is a most interesting trip, and one that is indicative of the high standard of our j local manufacturers in their different ; walks of life. Just inside the door of a huge, well-1 lighted top floor there is a young man

weighing great bales of mill wool and kapok into baskets in exact quantities. Each basketful is emptied into the enormous tray which represents the mattress before it is “bagged and bound.” 1 “Emptied” is scarcely the right word, as the material Is BLOWN into place by compressed air, which naturally “teases” It into the fluffiest and softest state possible. The “Durodown” people have a sys-

tem of so many layers of mill wool interspersed with so many of pure kapok, the proper series having been discovered by years of successful experience in bedding manufacture. Anyway, in this first section there is made up the future mattress in its proper quantities, but all lying loosely on a huge table. The next stage forces this kapok and mill wool into shape, so many inches deep, so many wide and long, and then feeds it into a waiting cover of ticking.

Quickly the oue open edge of the ticking is sewn up by. a girl, with a special sewing machine, then the mattress is ready for binding by tufts. A wonderful piece of machinery is here seen in action. Like a giant sewing machine in general appearance, it very easily and quickly, and under the direction of only one man, puts in the tufts and ties them so that they cannot come apart. Not so very long ago this job took nearly six men to do, with, of course, correspondingly higher costs.

The next operation is also very fascinating. An electrically operated machine that works somehow on the edge of a table, works around the new mattresses, puckers up the edge in its grasp, and stitches those roll edges. Here again It was not so very

long ago that buyers who wanted this type of edging had to pay extra for it. Nowadays every “Durodown” mattress is made like that at no extra cost.

The mattress is now ready. It is carefully brushed and cleaned, and dropped down a sliute two storeys to the packing department on the ground floor. Even this final touch is interesting, for the wrapping also is done by machinery. A huge roll of brown paper is spread out, the mattress wraps itself round it, with a few more wrappings for cleanliness, the edges are turned in and gummed down, and that particular mattress is ready for the home. The mattress may go anywhere from the North Cape to Stewart Island.

From the loose kapok to the finished mattress is less than half an hour. This wonderful feat of organisation and mechanical efficiency is typical of the brains that are at work today and every day at the important job of bringing comfort to the home. That it is done here in Auckland, by New Zealanders like ourselves, is a distinct tribute to the initiative and ability of New Zealand’s manufacturers, and another sound reason why New Zealand-made goods should be asked for first.