The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1897-05-13

HACKFELD'S NEW COFFEE PLANT
IN OPERATION.
a New Departure in the Coffee In
dustry-The German Firm Grade
Their Coffee Ready for Market.

just off to the right of the main
office building of II. Hackfeld d Co.
stands the large new two-story stone
! building erected by that firm. CON
/ tanning within its walls the finest and
best improved machinery for the pre-
paration of coffee for the market
Although the planr has been in op-
Grafton for some weeks, but very few
of the machinery. Mr.. John F. Hack
field east aside his work this morning
and very kindly escorted Star re-
porter thorugh the building. Men
were busy unloading bags of coffee,
while others were engaged preparing
bags, containing the highest grades
of Hawaiian coffee, including Kona,
| Ilamaliua, Laupahoehoe and Waianae,
for shipment. The attention of other
workmen was centered upon the ma
chinery in operation.
From the front door to the back
| door, from the basement to the top
floor, can be found machinery in run
ming order, and other appurtenances
for the handling of coffee. which are
| full of interests. The mill is turning
out fair number of bags now and it
is increasing as each day passes.
The coffee brought up from the
wharf where it has been landed by
the island steamers, is first weighed
and piled up in "A corner of the frs
floor. When it is needed it is placed
on large elevator operated by clec-
tricity and carried to the second floor.
where it is examined. If it has not
been sufficiently dried it is taken to
the drying rooms on the third floor
and spread out over the floors to dry.
The coffee is always thoroughly wash
ed and cured before it is shipped from
the plantation. When the drying pro-
cess has been gone through the coffee
is forced through "A shute, which car
ries it to the second floor.
When the coffee is in proper condi-
tion to start out on its errand through
the mill it is dumped into mammoth
hopper, which has a capacity of 175
bags and situated on the second floor
1t passes through a FEEDER into an
elevator, which carries it to large
four-cylnder separator. Here the
dust, stones, chips of wood and other
refuse is taken from the coffee, which
passes on into the huller, a prodigi-
Gus bulk of machinery on the first
floor.
While in the first cylinder the bean
is robbed of it's parchment, which
passes through an exhaust into a
huge box and ultimately finds its way
into rubbish barrel stationed out
side of the building. The bean passes
on through small opening which is
regulated by a weight attachment al
lowing the proper number of beans
to go into the second cylinder of the
huller, where the polishing operation
takes place.
Already cleaned and polished, the
coffee is picked up by IA second eleva-
tor. which carries it to the second
floor again, where the separator, or
grader is located. Here the dust or
other particles adhering to the coffee
are first separated. These find their
way down one of eight shutes run
ming from the grader. The next Let
der, which picks out the small pea
beans and the small fiat beans. Then
the medium pea beans and the me-
dium fiat beans are assorted. The
last lot, which is the best, is the large
pea beans and the malformed beans.
The different grades are known, COM
mencing with the highest, as; Extra
prime, prime, good and pea beans.
From the shutes the coffee is bag
ged, weighed, labelled and made ready
for shipment. One hundred pounds
net are placed into every bag.
The machinery is of German manu-,
facture. One thing that is noticed is
the neatneSs of the mill. j. II. Fettes
who was employed on the Monsarrat
coffee plantation at Kolo, is superin-
tendent of the mill
lIackfeld S Co. are to be congratu-
lated upon its enterprise and success
in the line of coffee preparation for
the market.