Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1906-10-06

| Shinery with decoction OF water
sugar and starch.
When the mixing is complete buck
etfuls of the compound are carried to
the steam-cooker; here the first cook.
ing takes place at a temperature OF
| $50 degrees. On both sides of this
cooker long chutes descend from the
upper story, and down these chutes
fall tin cans, dropping into place be-
meath nozzles which automatically
discharge precisely a canful of corn,
These nozzles fill fifty-six cans a min
ute-almost one every second, you
notice-which is a great deal faster
than a dozen skilled workmen could
do
AS the cans are filled with the
steaming, fragrant mixture, an end
less chain conveys them on to a re-
volving steel table, where they are
roughly hustled and made to move
on" until they fall into a regular line
and pass through the automatic
counter" a tuTnstile affair which
registers the exact number of cans
filled every day.
Without pausing a second, the cans
travel along a belt which carries them
under the wiper" a buzzing brush,
much like a street-sweper in small
scale; this device instantly cleans off
any stray kernels which may have adj
hereu ~ U..O ---.- "a ,aaaaa tho
cans to an operator who very deftly
places the little round "solderated"
covers in position. Just as they
leave the operators hands, each can
receives a good brushing with muri-
attic acid from a nest of whirling
bruehes, for all the world like mucl-
lage brushes. This acid prepares the
covers for the automatic soldering
process.
The soldering machine receives
twelve cans at once, soldiers them ST.
with circular irons, and
delivers them out on to another belt
before you half understand how it is
It's capacity is $4,000
cans a day. Each can cover is pro-
vided with its own solder, the irons
of the machine, heated by gasoline
flame and we'll dipped in shannon
lac, whirl down with a spiral motion;
presto! the thing is done.
Nothing now remains but to seal
up the little air holes in the middle
of the covers. This detail is attended
to by a couple of men who drop solder
on the centre of each top as the cans
pass by. Leaving these men, the
cans are collected in great trays, each
holding ninety-four cans. Five trays
are piled together, and the whole
mass, containing 47O cans in all, is
off to the "retorts," where
very high temperature is maintained
by steam.
Into the retorts go the cans on the
double quick; the doors are lacked
IN and the steam admitted. Here
he corn receives it's final cooking;
and when, with great rush and hiss
ng of steam, the doors are thrown
open again, it is ready for market
and table.
Other workmen now wheel the
'orn away to large platform where
thousands of cans are piled; a hose is
,quirted over the new arrivals to cool
hem, and they are then ready for
abeling and shipment. The whole
process has consumed less than an
lour, from the time of delivery in the
ard until the finished product lies
cooked sealed and cooled on the shin
ling platform.
The rapidity and entire precision
If the manufacture are miraculous.
Hardly twice does a human hand
ouch the work-it is a triumph of
machinery, pure and simple. There
ire, in the whole range of mechan-
cs, very few processes excelling this
or quickness and automatic perfec-
ion. When one considers that in the
cry brief corn season a single shop
urns out from 100000 to 100000
ans, the rapidity of the work be-
ONES apparent.-New England Gro
er.