The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1865-03-18
S II A r G. III
How it is Made, and Where.
The 1lltnois' starch Factory nj
Ottawa.


the hydraulic basin, and to ask, ." hat Is
tina, great buillng?" The ready answer IS,
The Starch Factory Blu, if he inquiries
further in reference to said factory its
nature, extent, pro6tableness, &c, nine-terths
of our citizens would probably have little
more to impart than that it is regarded as a
.big thing" and making heap of money.
SO little is our interest i'll thing Invested OF
the charm of novelty! Hundreds Of GU,
citizens know as little of the interior of oul
starch factory as they do of St. Paul's
cathedral in London, who yet, were they first
to see it at Chicago or New York, would rush
into it with the greatest eagerness and curl
osity.
We have had some distressingly dull ant
gloomy weather this week, and in an effor
to keep off the blues, the thought struck u.
that an item might be had by taking rur
through the starch factory. We rccollectec
that immense additions had recently beer
made to the structure, and vast deal mus
be there that would be new, and likely to in
terest US and our readers. They shall judg'
whether our conjecture was correct.
And first, let US correct an erroneous i'm
preston, which ourselves had partially shared
that the folks at the starch factory are AYERS:
receiving visitors-that the manufacture o
starch is a profound secret, who which out
siders might steal and who must therefore be
rigidlv excluded. This is all bosh. 1t i.
true. in an establishment like this, where
many persons are employed and all are busy
they want no loungers: but citizens or strang
ers, really DESTROYS of seeing the interior o.
An establishment so novel in much of it.
machinery and operations, are not only free
ly admitted, but courteousy shown through
the works. This was eminently so in our case
Before entering the building, however, let us
taie survey Of the exterior. The main
building has front on the hydraulic basin OF
$50 feet, and extends back from the basin
$50 feet, making it in shape square. 80
| BY 80 feet of this ina building are six stories
high. with a large cupalo Of two stories more
| The balance of the main building is from one
to three stories in height. There are, how
ever, other buildings attached to and used in
connection with tie factory, that give the
whole working area of about four acres. 4
| building of such height. covering four acres.
occupied in the manufacture of the single
article Of s,arch-verily that is a big thing
If not tie largest. it is indisputably, with very
few erceptions, the largest starch factory in
the world!
| \ GU viii think 50 when y"u enter il. The
corn, after its removal from the cob and IN
deIgoing softcning process, Is conveyed by
elevators TO the 9TH story, aud ihi,hcr NC fol
los il. We find it there in huge hopper
holding Thousand or more bushels. 1t Iass
es down into mill, IS ground, and thence
passes into great revolving "separators,
lookin. not unlike miller, bolts. From these
it passes through monstrous iron rollers
many ton. in weight, and Of such immense
pressure that they would fat;cn out tissue
paper. On the 9TH, 18th, and 81 stories, a.
cry all apparently carrying the corn through
the same process. stopping, however, on each
story in II ..rics Of grc;., rouad tanks, like
those in a brewerv. bat of such enormous
dimensions that i: filed vi h !aycr, ten thous
and Dutchmen could sake tier thirst a
each of them for a week. We must hc ex
cused, however, from any further attempts a
describing this grinding and crushing process
or any Of the stupendous and complicated
machinery by which it is done. Our rur
through the establishment was hasty, and i
to describe the use of all this machinery
Suffice it to say, the object of all is to
eliminate the starch from the other compor en-,
parts of the corn, and to deliver it, thinly
diluted with water, into the immense ranges
Of watts or cisterns that cover the two lower
stories. OF these there are $50, and as they
are ranged in columns closely side by side
over that vast area, they present a sight worth
seeing. = picture in the March No. o.
Harpers Magazine, of an immense sugar es
Enlistment in Cuba, would be no bad repre-
sentation of this part of the Illinois Starch
Factory. The starch, in its thin, watery
state, is decanted from one tier to another of
these watts until it is thoroughly washed aud
then separated from the water, when it is
ready to be removed to the kilns for final DRY.
| ing.
We learned, on inquiry, that the present
capacity of the establishment was equal to
100000 bushels of corn a year from which
are produced about 100000 pounds OF
starch, or about 10000 pounds per day. The
starch finds ready market at remuneratve
prices. There is good reason for it. Every
housewife knows that starch from potatoes or
any similar article, is good, bad, or Indifferent
in proportion to the pnrity of the water used
in making it. The advantage the Illinois
Starch Factory has over all others in the
country consists in the purity of Tie water il
uses. This is no small ltcm-thc daily re-
! quircment being some 100000 gallons The
water is brought in iron pipes from subteI-
rane;,n lake which undcrics Il large tract Of
country on the south side of the Illinois river
two miles south Of Ottawa. This remarkable
lake lying at an attitude above the cupola of
the factory, the water is available in all parts
Of the vast building will out the aid Of pumps,
TIE water, with its extraordinary purity and
abundant supply, was not discovered until
some four years after the factory was built
aud not until, indeed, for want of it, the
whole enterprise had narrowly escaped prov
ing failure. The company are wholly in
debted to our enterprising fellow citizen, the
Hon. Ex-Chlrf Justice CAroS, who is large