Daily Kennebec journal., 1906-04-24
Expert From Boston Gives Evi.
denCe as to Values.
SAYS Mil Can Produce as Much Good:
as Modern One Could.

mill builder and expert, was the first
witness called and he was on the stand
during the entire forenoon session.
While the witness was being exam
ined by Attorney Brown as to his ex-
perience in mill matters, with view
to testing his competency to testify as
an expert witness, he said he had serv-
ed as craftsman. mill engineer ana
building constructor since first enter
ing the mill business in 1851.
His first position. he said, was with
the l.awrencedale Manufacturing Com
paEy, where he was employed at the
time the relative efficiency of water
alton. He was employed To make tests
and surveys of the machinery used in
both methods Of generating power for
for the manufacture of cotton goods.
He had also been sent to different
parts Of the country 10 make power
tests. Later he mad been called on to
remodel the mills of the Lawrencedals4
Company and succeeded in changing
the entire machinery of the plant from
the gearing to the betting system and
without power being lost while the
change was in progress.
Witness also told of a great deal of
other parts of Massachusetts, all of
which required an expert knowledge
of the business. Speaking of his in
vestigation of the property of the
Lockwood Company made last Febru-
airy, he said he had found substantial
piece of property, unusually well built
thrnIrrhCnt lynp ~,
All of the buildings he had thoroughly
examined with the assistance of Mr.
Abbott, who had courteOusly volunteer
ed to give him such information as he
desired. He had found all of the mills
in good working order and so arrang-
ed that in reality they formed
two complete plants, 50 close
ly allied by good connections
that they formed one. The buildings,
he thought, were not only very well
built, but remarkably free from any
evidence of depreciation.
Asked Of his personal knowledge of
the builder of the mills, Amos d. Lock
wood. witness said the man who had
given him his early education in the
cotton business had been one of Mr..
some very definite ideas in regard to
him. Mr.. Lockwood, he said, had in
his time been looked on as one of the
foremost mill men of the country
When making his examination wit
ness said he had not done so from the
standpoint of the underwater.
but with a view to what would
be the proper sale price
between a willing seller and purchaser.
He had, with the assistance of Mr. Alb
bott, obtained data to make a sched-
ule of the original value of the machin-
cry, as well as its value at the time
he had made his inspection. In this
connection he said that when machines
had become obsolete through later i'm
provements, it was usual to place on
them valuation little above what they
would bring as old iron even though
they might be in god condition and do
ing perfect work. An up-to-date man.
ufacturer he said, would want the lat
est improved machinery and the old
machinery would be worth slightly
above the price of old iron to keep the
plant going while the new machinery
was being put in. The ma
"hinery in the mill has been run
for many years, he said, and is now
valued at half the price it originally
cost. The original value of Mill No. |
he said was $3051SS and its present
value s2ls.OS5. Referring to the frames
IN Mill No. l, 67 in number for 234
splnd!es. installed in 1896, witness said
they We're of as good quality as could
be bought at the present time and he
mad made a discount for the years they
had been in service. The 7S frames put
in in 1875, containing 176 spindles. al
though doing good work, had not the
best Of modern spindles. They We're
calued at $3.50 per spindle, with 50 per
cent. off. They could be replaced with
modern spindles for 81 per spindle
Covering the frames and spindles in
Mill No. 2 in about the same manner
he took up the fixed machinery, esti-
mating it i'm detail az follows:
New Present
Casting. 20 cents per spin