The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1909-07-26

is a measure of the size of the estab-
lfshment. The chemical laboratory at
the plant is one of the few maintained
by Alabama oil mills. The laboratory
is necessitated because the Montgom-
cry mill Is the central establishment
for the chain of mills of the Southern
Cotton Oil Company in Alabama.
Within the laboratory the chemist
and his assistants are eternally ex-
perimenting, testing. determining as
to grades of the oil. and perhaps
sometimes inventing things new. Much
of the Tins the incest of chemical
work is required, inasmuch as there
are about forty different grades of the
| cotton OIL from the crude substance
selection Is matter of intense care
| at times.
| All Of the chemical work of the Ala
hama division of this company is done
| in Montgomery. where the head office
and plant Is located.
The great plant of the Southern
company is operated by steam and
upon the grounds. A boiler house
holds four water-tubular boilers.
three of $50 horsepower each. and one
of 500 horsepower. With this motive
power. the belts and conveyers are run
throughout the six acres which the
plant covers.
1t runs the belts and lathes of the
machine shop, another institution
which bespeaks the completeness of
the plant In the machine shop Is
effected most Of the smaller repair
work.
The plant, situated far from the
heart Of the city. at Riverside park. is
little world In itself. high fence
surrounds the six acres of its space,
ana fba anfranca pafa 40 attended nv
Waterman who demands your au-
thority for admittance. For the sight
seeing stranger Is, as all the world
knows, a bore-as much so as is the
bill collector and the loafer, and 1t
is to forbid the three entrances that
the guardsman stands at the portals.
Within the fence lie the buildings,
seven in all. on each side of the path
way from the gate straight through
the yard. Railroad tracks run into the
yard. and alongside the buildings, to
facilitate loading and shipping.
Machinery Does All Work.
The largest building of the plant is
probably the combined seed and fertil-
izer building. There are two seed
buildings. with a dual capacity of
about Is. 900 tons of seed. Into the two
buildings the seed is packed; thence
when the time for its use is ripe, it is
shot, by means OF a conveyer belt to
the separators where the lint Is pulled
from the seed, and where the trash
sand, nails, sticks and such q con-
Rlomeration that accumulates neces-
sariIy in the journey of the cotton
seed from it's bed in the white opened
boil In the fields through the gin, in
wagons, to the oil mill.
Through the second building the
seed is hurried the kernel extracted
from the hull, the cakes of the kerr
nels pressed and the oil squeezed out.
and then begins the journey to other
buildings. The oil is pumped through
a pipe to the tanks; the cakes are TAX
en- from the moulds. and the hulls go
to the hull house to be placed in sacks,
Through all of the journey the seed
has not been touched by hand.
With Montgomery as the head
twelve plants of the Southern Cotton
OIL Company are directed--at Union
Springs. Dothan, GreenvillA Linden,
Sylacauga. Alexander City, Cullman,
Decatur, Sheffield. Andalusia. Pensa-
cola.
Montgomery. then, is the center Of
the district S. j. Cassels is district
manager for Alabama.
The Alabama Cotton Oil Company is
the second of the so-called trust"
plants. While the concern is incor-
porated in Alabama under the state
laws. while nominally it is an autono-
my. with headquarters at Mobile. still
1t is known that the Alabama Cotton