Evening star., 1907-08-23

ployes Of Mr. Borden nearly all belong to
one union or another. but he has never had
any difficulty with them. There have been
frequent strikes In the other mills In 1905
there was long strike lasting nearly six
months, over an attempted reduction or lO
per cent in wages. but while the operatives
in every other mill in the city walked out
the Borden mills continued running in full
force at the old wages the entire time. Mr..
Borden has never had a misunderstanding
with his employees that could not be ad-
justed in a single conference. The reason
for this Is that he has refused to join an
association of manufacturers which regu-
lates wages and other questions relating to
labor and acts entirely independently and
insists upon dealing directly with his own
people without the intervention of union Of
ficials or walking delegates. He pays them
on scale of his own according to the
market for his products. When the price
of cotton goes up their wages are increased;
when it goes down they are reduced in the
same proportion by common consent.
Making the Designs.
Everybody knows how ordinary cotton
cloth is made. but print mill is quite Gu
riosity. To understand the process it is nee
essary to begin with the designing room.
where a dozen or more artists educated in
the mills and in the Lowell School of De-
sign. a branch of the Massachusetts Insti-
tute of Technology, are exercising their In
genuity and taste in novel patterns. Such
large output requires a great variety and
the demands of fashion require frequent
changes, so that an average of 5000 new
patterns are put upon the market every
year. These are very different from ordi-
nary designing, because they are SO minute.
If the gentle reader will examine the pat
tern of the gown she is wearing or that Of
her husbands fancy shirt, she will notice
that the figures are very small and the lines
are very fine and close together. This
makes it necessary to have the designs alb
color upon paper exactly as they will look
upon the cloth. and when accepted are sent
to the engraving room, where the patterns
are reproduced upon steel dies by corps
England Germany and France. The work
is very fine and exacting, similar to bank
note engraving.
The pattern is cut by hand with hardened
steel instruments upon the surface of small
steel rollers which have been softened.
When the engraving Is finished the roller Is
hardened and Is run in contact with a sec
ond roller of soft steel with tremendous
pressure so that the reversed figure pro-
jects from the surface instead Of being in
taglio, as upon the first roller. The second
roller is then hardened and run with pres
sure against third roller of copper thirty
two inches long and eighteen inches in d.
ameter, which receives the pattern and re-
tains it.
The die cutting is recognized trade SIM
liar to ordinary engraving and jewel cut
ting and its members most proficient are
found among the Scotch, although the
Frenchmen are said to be the pest design
ers.
Printing the Cloth.
The printing machines resemble the mod
ern newspaper printing press, and the busi-
ness of making calico and other figured cot
ton fabrics is very much like printing a
newspaper, only the forms are OF "copper"
with the patterns intaglio like an engraved
ink. The colors are mixed by chemists ac-
cording to the scheme of the designers.
In some cases the patterns are printed on
the white cloth. In others the cloth is first
one after the other. Between them 1t is
carried over numerous rollers, through dry
ing rooms in the upper stories of the mill,
continuous web Of cloth mile after mile
in length, always stretched to a tight ten
sion, and always in motion, until 1t has
passed through the dye vats sufficient num-
ber Of times for the color to reach the prop
er density. Then. after it has dried the
cloth is wound around a great reel, three
feet in diameter, and Is ready to be fed
to the printing press.
The engraved copper rollers are so placed
In the press that they revolve through g.
box containing the color, just as the roller
Of a printing press passes through the ink.
After the color has been wiped off the sur
face Of the cylinder leaving only that
which remains in the die, the latter is
transferred to the continuous roll Of cloth
that Is passing under intense pressure be-
tween the copper roller and a large steel
cylinder.
The same process is used with goods that
have been dyed, except that the cloth is
subsequently passed through a chemical
bath.
All Of the prints, after passing through
the presses, are soaked washed, dried and
then passed through watts of starch, sago or
dextrine "a sort of paste) which fills the
cloth and gives 1t body. 1t then passes over
rollers and up again. into the drying room
long enough to become perfectly dry. Final
ly all goods are passed over "beater-
frames" which straighten the threads,
make the edges uniform and iron the
face They are then cut into pieces of fifty
yards each, folded, and the trade mark tick
cts and bands attached. No piece leaves
the factory without the labels Of the Ameri-
can Printing Company.
1t requires five men to run two printing
ma chines and they must have skill and ex-
perience Each machine has Its own printer
and every two printers have a helper be-
tween them. Originally most of the print
ers were Englishmen, brought over from the
old country, but the present force were all
educated in the mill and are of English.
Irish and American ancestry. They start
as apprentices at $1S week, and when they
become full journeymen receive from $25 to
$50 week.