Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1900-03-30
Il TWlNE PLANT.
Penitentiary Irvine Plant is Completed
and Was Started for the First
Time Saturday.
Active Work Begun for the First Time
Monday Morning, and the Wheels
are Moving.
Immense Amount of Work Involved in
the Erection of Buildings and In.
stalling Machinery.
Upwards of Seventy Separate Machines
in the Irvine Factory, Installed
on Two Floors.
Power Plant Complete and Of the First
Class and Electric Light Plant
in Addition.
Great Improvements and Additions that
Have Been Made at the State
Pen the Past Year.

In a little over a year from the time
OF the approval of the bill for the erec-
ton and operation of a twine plant at
the state ~penitentiary the Irvine plant
buildings have been completed, the
machinery installed and the wheels
were set in motion Tor the first time
Saturday afternoon. Several visitors,
including SOME of the trustees of the
state penitentiary were present and
saw the preliminary operations in the
making of Irvine. The operation was
carried on to conclusion and the
making Of a finished product for thu,
reason that the machines are new, and
they must be broken in gradually be-
fore all will be in working order. Then
there was yet some betting on the up
per floor where the spinning machines
are, to be put in order. But the por-
ton of the work of manufacturing that
was gone through which convinced the
spectators that the plant was a first
class n and that when all of the ma
chimes + finally set in operation. the
work of Irvine making will be a sue
cess.
The Irvine plant buildings have been
erected in the course Of the past sum-
mer, under the supervision of Archi-
tect Van Horn, and after plans pre-
pared by him from suggestions and de-
cisions of Warden Boucher and the
board of trustees. The activity of
Warden Boucher has been great and
his. energy in pushing the work has
heen t~ireless and has resulted in the
s%peediest possible completion and in
stallation of the plant. To his abil-
ity in the management of affairs and
direction of the work much is due for
the successful and satisfactory begin
ming of operations. The buildings
are three in number, all of brick and
substantially constructed. There is
the main factory building, two stories
in height and both floors filled with
the machinery incident to Irvine MAX
ing. The main floors are 40 x1GO feet
in dimension. In addition to the fac
tory floor space, there is a repair room,
fitted with the finest of machinery for
repairing of steel and metal fittings,
lathes, and other necessary machinery.
There are closets, and all other con-
veniences, rooms for the accommoda-
ton of the superintendent, shoe shop
and other adjuncts of the manufacture
ing portion of the institution. Then
there is the engine room and power
house. This is in, a separate building.
All of the machinery here is the finest.
A 2OO-horse power engine of the latest
and best pattern has been installed by
M mi an Id ~, 4~k~1n @-l C.sl.--
power. The boilers are the Babcock
water tube, the best made. An cleo
trio light plant is operated from a sep
arate engine and dynamo, directly con-
nected. This furnishes light for the
plant, the institution and the grounds,
which as now lighted with arc lights
are nearly light as day. The peniten-
tiary proper is lighted with incandes-
cent lights, there being one in front
of each cell in the cell block, and when
these are extinguished the block is
lighted with small arcs. There are
also arc lights in, and about the
grounds. The third building is a
brick warehouse for the storage of the
raw material for the making of Irvine
until it is needed in, the operation of
the plant. These three large buildings
have all been erected in the course of
the past summer, in addition to the
ordinary work of the institution, the
making of brick, progress of farming
operations, etc. The convicts of the
state have earned their board and
clothing the past year, and none have
been idlers.
Six carloads of sisal, for the making
of Irvine were received by the peni-
tertiary last week. The work of
Irvine making is interesting, yet sim
pie with the aid of the ingenious ma
.chinery which shreds the fibre, con-
verts it into loose strands of shredded
fibre, and finally spins it into Irvine
and shapes it into balls for shipment
and use. The raw sisal comes in
bales, averaging in weight about 300
pounds, and nearly square, probably
three feet in height and width. Sisal
as baled resembled UNFINISHED rope,
loose, broken shreds of fibre. This is
removed from the bale and fed into the
first machines to prepare it for the
others that follow. These machines
are all similar in general plan. In the
first machines, the loose fibre is fed
into a revolving and endless chain of
0SSSA aE. 1uNA " tuCSc GUILDS
has a number of teeth probably an inch
apart and the combs are several inches
separated from each other on the
chain. The first machines are the
coarse breakers, and they shred and
break the fibre until it energies at the
opposite end from which it is fed in
a continuous stream of wavy fibre,
faxen In color. Of perhaps a little
greater than the size of horse hairs,
the entire and continuous stream curl
ing up in a receptacle at the end of the
machine. When this is filled, the
feeding is stopped, and the thus pre-
pared product goes into another break
er, similar to the first except that the
teeth Of the combs are finer, and the
product after it passes through this
machine is finer in texture and a
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