The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-11-03

and from gallery above some seven
or eight hundred may be looked down
upon in one coup doeil, swarming like
bees over the extensive floor. At each
table Is a sewing machine, driven by
steam power and worked by a machin-
ist who is supported by six or eight
| hand workers. The machine, of course,
does the long seams, and the hand
workers do the preliminary basting and
| afterward the sewing on of buttons and
other items that machinery cannot
| touch. The twinking of the machines
the glitter of the metal, the glow and
| Kaleidoscope shifting of the heaps of
| color and the movements of the work
| ers present a scene hardly to be recog-
nlZed by the unfamiliar eye as one Of
hard toll and drudgery They can turn
out some five thousand tunics a week
| here, and the enormous floor keeps up
| pretty much the same roar Of activity
all the year round, and the only thing
| that happens If war breaks out or is
| threatened Is that the day grows longer
they are working now a day and
| quarter-or there may be some little
change in the color of the material
creeping over certain proportion of the
| tables. A campaign in some tropical
| region may demand suits made Of kha-
ki drill, or black pads" or cholera
| belts" as certain items of clothing were
| called when they were first devised,
| though for a curious reason it became
necessary to alter the name to FLANNEL
! belts" which Is what they really are.
! They N of
worn around the body, as some little
| safeguard against maladies tending to
develop into cholera 1t was found that
the mere serving out or order to wear
| these cholera belts" set up in a good
many of the men condition of nervous
| funk that actually resulted in illness.
OF course when there is any probable
ty of exceptional demand on the army
| clothing factory the immense supplies
they always have in stock are carefully
overhauled, and here and there stores
are strengthened little according to
what may seem likely to be required.
The official at the head of the stores de-
partment may make requistion on the
factory department, or may deem it adj
visable to hurry UP contracts in the
hands of outside contractors Large as
this place is-vasty larger than would
be imagined from it's external appear
ance-only about third of the cloth
ing of the British army is made at PM
leo So that the hustle of preparation
for any serious campaign, so far as
clothing is concerned would not inn
probably be found in the factories of
contractors in various parts of the king
dom, and the actual dealing out of
stores to the men goes on from the dis
trict reserve stores. The drab cotton
drill khaki will be supplemented by
garments of nice warm wooden materi-
al--drab -colored scribe, in fact. The
khaki suits are not made to any great
extent at the Pimlco factory, and the
needlewomen are rather glad of it, 1t is
a hard, intractable material, with rath-
er an unpleasant smell, and they say it
makes their machine needles nearly red
hot But Of late years this khaki is
very largely used by troops on service.
1t is strong and durable and light, and,
especially out on the verdureless plains
of tropical or sub-tropical countries, it
is not such good mark for rifemen as |
the British scarlet. They get In at PIN
leo million and a quarter yards of |
this material every year. 1t is all mi |
nutely inspected and weighed, and then |
for the most part given out to contrac- |
tors to be made up into garments that |
are again very stringently overhauled. |
There are great upper floors devoted to |
this inspection of finished garments, of |
which they can get through every week |
some twenty-five thousand
1t need hardly be said that clothes
are made at Pimlice on wholesale
system. They make up coats. for in
stance in twenty different sizes, and
each size is cut out about twenty at a
time. This cutting is a very curious
piece of business. The kersey, or what
ever it may be, is laid out in twenty
and the pattern is marked
upon it. The cutting Of these twenty
thicknesses is done not, of course by !
means of the tailors shears, but the
material is taken to broad tables up in
the galleries and cut by special ma
chine. This consists essentially of
thin endless band of steel, which runs
at great speed perpendicularly
the table. One edge of this
flexible steel band is sharpened to ra-
zorlike keenness, and against this edge
the material is deity pushed. The gilt
tering plade slices its way through the
twenty thicknesses of soft material in
the neatest and cleanest way, the ope-
rator guiding the material so as to
bring the pipe-clay lines up the edge.
In this way coat sleeves and collars.
and all other parts of the garments,
are cut en- bloc, and are then passed on |
to girls whose business it is to put to-
gether the different pieces that go to
make up single garment. 1t Is quite
possible, therefore, for a scarlet tunic
10 have one sleeve from one piece of
and the other sleeve from an
other piece and the collar from third,
md SO on. 1t is very important mat