The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-09-27
THE COTTON FACTORY.
GreenwOOd's Chief Industry Pleas.
antIy Pictured.

Greenwood, 8. c., Sept. 81, 1893.
Accompanied last Wednesday by Mr.. w.
burst. we visited the Greenwood Cotton Fac
tory, which was built in 1890 by stock com
pany, the amount subscribed being one hun
dred thousand dollars. Mr.. w. L. burst O
this city was elected president and under bill
management the factory has paid entirely
satisfactory dividends to its stock holders.
This factory is q well-constructed two-story
brick building two hundred by seventy-siS
feet, and is located in the midst Of a beautiful
grove near the c. & g., the g., G. & n. and the
p. r. & w. e. Railroads with which roads II
has side track connection. 1t employs some
seventy-flve operatives and daily consumes
about five bales of cotton, which makes some
five and o half thousand yards OF first class
goods OF five or six different weights and
widths. Twenty-Five hundred spindles are
now in operation and this number will be
doubled at an early day, thus doubling the
capacity of the mill. The company owns
thirt" acres Of land upon which fifteen com
atives were erected in 1890, and within a few
weeks from now ten more similar buildings
will have been completed. The operatives
are furnished with clear, cool water from five
conveniently located wells.
President burst informs US that the factory
employs only first class people, and that they
freely associate with the best citizens oi
Green wood, their children attending the
graded school here, Joining the Sunday
schools and the different churches just the
same as other children do. He feels the deep.
est interest In the operatives employed by
him and encourages parents 10 send their
children to school az regularly as circum-
stances will admit. Mr. burst by his gener.
GUS and impartial dealings has won the high
est respect and confidence Of all who know
him. He has always word OF encourage
ment for those with whom he associates.
In addition TO burning coal the mill annual
ly consumes about one and half thousand
cords Of wood which is supplied by farmers
living In the surrounding country. Besides
Z haV rotn hnt fpor In ff,a
room, boiler department, and ware house
are connected with the factory.
. The engine room contains two hundred
and fifty y-horse power engine for running the
ity produced by two hundred light dynamo,
driven by a twenty-five horse power engine,
which Is separate from the engine that drives
the factory machinery. This room also con-
tains heavy lathe and drills for finishing
work.
Entering the mixing department on the Sec
ond floor we closely noticed the different ap-
pearance of the cotton as IL was mauipulai ed
by each successive machine I'LL 1t was ready
for the carding department. Here we watch
ed with much interest the sharpening OF q
carding machine with rapidly rotating en-
ory wheel which was at regular Intervals au-
tomatically transferred from one end of the
cards 10 the other. Next we visited the spin.
ming department where we saw an automatic
machine stop the moment roll OF cotton
broke or had given out. This machine ap.
accord the moment the brok en- roll Is mend
ed. Descending TO the first floor, we visited
weaving and stamping departments.
We were forcibIy impressed with the neat
appearance Of each and every department Of
the factory-even the engine room is a model
OF neatness.
Within a few yards OF the factory is a reser.
voir containing about one million gallons uf
water as clear as crystal. Mr. burst says that
insurance on the factory is only one-fourth OF
regular rates. This low rate Of insurance is
due to the fact that every arrangement posi-
BILE has been made to prevent and TO eXtin-
guish fire in the buildings.
Automatic fire extinguishers are equally
distributed throughout the building. There
are besides this means Of extipguishing fire a
large fire pump, q regularly organized fire
compahy and buckets of water are constantly
kept in various parts Of the building. One
hundred and fifty degrees Of heat opens the
automatic sprinklers i7b.rh will Immediately
begin to revolve spripging the floor ten feet
around to depth Of two inches in minute.
Six three-inch streams of water can be
thrown at the same time to any portion OF
the buildings.
Before leaving we went into the factory OF
flee where we found Mr. 8. p. Wright, book
keeper, busily engaged posting his books.
Greenwood Is justly proud OF her splendid
ly equipped factory. N. o. Pyles.