Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1889-02-28
AN ELECTRIC FORTRESS.


An Entrance Finally Effected Into
Freund's Famous Factory at Brooklyn,
Where He Electrified His Dupes and
Sugar at the Same Time-The Inner Re-
cesses of the Embellishments Almost I'M.
pregnable with Many Doors of Iron and
GnarIed Oak-Evidence. of the Fraud.
NEW YORK, Feb. N.-Curious people
have been seeking to enter the factory OF
the Electric Sugar Company in Brooklyn
for months, but armed meu have stood
guard night and day, and no one is allowed
to enter. The factory is a most remark
able structure. 1t is five-story brick
building, originally intended as a ware
house, and was rented by the Electric
Sugar Company at the earnest request Of
Prof. Freund. The three lower floors
were open to the directors and stock
holders of the company, but the two
upper floors were guarded with a vigilance
that was simply extraordinary. Not even
the pre- sident of the company could visit
them, and until exposure came no one was
supposed to have passed the first Of the
big doors except Prof. Freund, his wife
and DR.. Howard. The first floor is now
filled with the original boxes in which
Freund's sugar was shipped into the facto-
ry, and hundreds Of bags Of raw sugar
which he was supposed to have electrified
into finest quality of refined sugar, but
which he simply hid away, are piled up
here. The second floor of the factory
contained the paper-room, where the blue
paper which was to line the barrels when
filed with sugar was kept.
The third floor ended the territory
which the company was allowed to visit.
Here it was that all the demonstrations"
were made. Above the third floor was an
impenetrable mystery to the company.
When the sugar was pouring through, the
awe-stricken stockholders would hear
rumbles and noises on the floors above,
but they were only told that this was
made by the secret machinery. From
the third floor to the fifth one passes
through door after door of iron and oak
studded with thick nails, and strong
enough to resist an invading army.
There Is door at the foot of the stair
way leading from the third to the fourth
floor, and beside it bell which the di-
rectors of the company had to pull when
they wanted to see Freund or Howard.
At the end of the stairs was massive
door, after which. when passed, there was
still third door, which was even stronger
than the other two. After passing through
these doors the first of the secret rooms
is re ached.
One whole side is filled with seven So
called granulators. They are simply
enormous sieves, one above the other,
three in each tier. Much shafting and
machinery is visible on this floor and all
of the very highest quality. But it was
the fifth and top floor that Freund used as
his hottest of holes. The floor is divided
into three compartments. One was used
for Freund's private Office, and the third
was the secret room. Freund'S office was
elegantly fitted up. The secret room it.
self is curiosity. 1t took the company
three weeks to break into the room after
the exposure, and then they selected the
weakest spot and came down from above.
There were two doors to this room, each
about two feet thick, lined on the outside
with two thicknesses OF sheet iron, spe-
cially hammered and prepared for Freund.
Inside this come great blocks of gnarled
oak laid so that the grain of no two
blocks run in the same direction. Then
came transverse bars of iron, then more
wood and then another thick sheet of
iron. Next to this iron was more oak,
then on the inside iron sheetings. The
whole mass was bound together by bolts
as thick as ones wrist and the front of
the door was all studded with nails which
looked like spikes.
Along the sides of the secret room were
long tables covered with zinc. The tables
were used to break the sugar on. In the
center of the room was a large quartz
crusher. The sugar was thrown into this
and crushed. 1t passed through to the
floor below, where it was sifted in the
granulators and dropped into the tubes,
whence it rushed to the stockholders
whenever there was a demonstration.
The raw sugar was never used at all.
Freund evidently intended to get rid of it
by washing it through pipes into the riv-
er, just as he had done at his home months
before. twas proudly pointed out to I'M
believers that when Freund got raw sugar
the refined product corresponded in
weight exactly with what was given him.
A nice little pair of scales standing at the
door of the secret room showed how this
marcel was worked. Freund simply
weighed the raw and the refined, and
knew to an ounce how much he had to
shoot down to his victims below.
The factory has five engines, two dyna-
mos to furnish electric light, two boilers,
two pumps and one large injector. At
least one hundred and twenty-fiv thou
sand dollars of the company's money went
into this factory.