The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1896-01-15

seams are ripped apart ana theSeparate
lengths, about 12O yards each are fold
ed and afterward baled, over 1000
yards to the bale. This completes the
process, and then the goods are ready
to be shipped to the bleachery, if
sheetings made with two harnesses ;"
or to the dye-house, if made with three
harnesses " in which case they are
twills, designed for use as coat lining.
The twill made here is the first pro-
duced in the South, having tape sell
wage, which prevents tearing by the
tentering machine in the dye-house.
The mill is fitted up throughout
with the latest improved machinery,
and in that it has no small advantage
over many small competitors in New
England. There are, of course, anto-
matte sprinklers and filled fire buckets
in every room, for the millman breads
fire above everything else. Downstairs
is 800-light Edison dynamo, which
supplies the mill. the offices and the
store and close to this room is the re-
pair shop, which is fitted up with all
sorts of supplies, as Newry is far from
any large center of trade. Then there
are improved systems of heating or
cooling the mill an apparatus supply
ing hot air in winter and cold air in
summer, and of moistening the air in
the loom room, water being thrown out
as fine spray by the aerophor system.
HOW THE POWER is SUPPLIED
Away downstairs the power is locat-
ed. Here, inclosed in steel cases, are
three turbine water-wheels, which sup
ply 600 horsepower, although the mill
requires only little over 500. These
wheels are arranged horizontally in
stead of perpendicularly, as in the old
style, and they have no gearing. The
power is conveyed to the various floors
by a series of fourteen transmission
ropes, passing over the big grooved
wheels adjacent to the turbine wheels.
A certain amount of steam is necces-
sary for supplying warm air in winter
and for keeping hot the "slasher," the
sizing machine; 80 the mill has two
furnaces, which develop boiler pres
sure up to 100 horsepower.
The dam, just outside the building,
confines the waters of the Little River,
a stream which takes its rise in the
Blue Ridge Mountains, twenty-five
miles away. This dam, which is built
of grant rests on heavy stone buttres-
ses. It is 241-2 feet high, 130 feet long
on the convex line, and Is feet wide at
the base and 8 at the top. The buttres-
ses are massively built, as is also the
canal.
A MODEL MILL VILLAGE.
The mill EMPLOYS about $40 persons,
men, women and children. They earn
from 40 cents to So each in working
day of eleven hours and the COM
pany's pay roll is nearly 100000 a
year. These $40 persons represent an
aggregate population of between 800
and 900 in the village. These people
are lodged in about sixty cottages, all
lathed and plastered, neatly painted
inside and OUTSIDE and attractive in ap-
pearance. Each cottage has running
water, supplied from q 130, ,O00-gallon
reservoir on the top of high hill over
looking the village and an excellent
sewerage system is also In operation.
Some Of the houses have eight rooms,
some six. and a few of the latter are
30 arranged that they can be divided
each into two three-room cottages,
giving accommodation for a family OF
two persons. The erection of such inn
proved houses has had the effect of
drawing to the service of the Courtenay
Manufacturing Company a superior
class Of operatives, who appreciate the
comforts afforded by such a village.
All of them are Southerners, and 1t is
the testimony of Mr.. Courtenay and
his Superintendent that they are en-
tirely satisfactory workers.
In addition to the cottages, the COM
pany operates in big brick building q
general store, where are sold at almost
cost price a wide range of household
goods. The post Office is in this build
ing-for Newry has post office. The
company also conducts at its own ex-
pense school in which seventy-fve or
eighty children of the village are en-.
rolled, and which is open nine months
in every twelve: and it keeps in order