New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1910-08-17

new INDUSTRY FOR MINNIE
sofa.
Oxford Linen Mattress Co. will
Locate at Winona. Market
For Flax Straw.

Against practically every State in
the West, Minnesota has won out in
its fight to have the Oxford Linen
Mattress Co., a 100000 Maine cor
| poration settle in it's midst
Robert G. Gould, president of the
company few days ago signed con-
tracts for the purchase of a large tract
OF land at Winona, upon which
suitable1 buildings of freproof con-
struction will be erected forthwith.
Several of the unsuccessful bidders
for the enterprise, which it is believed
will IN time make American made
| linen rank with cotton as one of the
worlds greatest textile industries,
offered attractive bonuses to the COM
pany to establish itself in their States.
Minnesota was selected as the site
| OF the mattress company after an ex-
haustive inquiry into the merits of the
claims presented by dozen other
western states which sought to secure
the new industry, because of it's
superior shipping facilities by both
rail and water and it's accessibility to
the heart of the flax growing country.
Winona has the advantage of trans
portation by the Mississippi and five
lines of railroad.
The Oxford Linen Mattress Go. is
subsidiary of the Oxford Linen Mills
of North Brook6eld, Mass. This
company controls the process of Ben
jamin Cushing Nudge, an ingenious
Yankee, whereby fax can be converted
into linen for manufacture in "a
hours. In view of the fact that it
takes from 20 to 80 weeks to effect this
change by the processes used in
Europe, the Nudge discovery fore
shadows revolution in the linen
industry akin to that wrought in
cotton more than century ago by the
invention of Eli Whitney's cotton gin.
While one of the greatest of the
worlds consumers of linen, the
United States up to the introduction
of the Nudge process has never been
able to manufacture linen proftably
because Of the great cost of labor here
as compared with Ireland, Scotland
and Belgium.
By means of the Nudge process the
ten million tons of fax straw annually
destroyed by the farmers of this
country as waste will now be available
for use and have a distinct commercial
value.
In the collection of the flax for
weaving, method new to the linen
industry will be employed. To facili-
tate the gathering of the fax fibre, the
company will use portable decorti-
eating machines for separating the
fibre from the fax stalks, moving
them from farm to farm as required.
The best grades of the fibre thus
secured Will be shipped to North
Brookfeld, Mass. for use by the
parent company in the manufacture of
fine linen dress, table and household
goods, which is now being successfully
turned out at the New England mill
by the Nudge process for the first time
in the history of this country. The
lower grades will be used for making
linen mattresses for which there is a
large market in both this country and
Europe. These mattresses have been
approved by the health authorities of
the principal cities of the country as
more sanitary, cooler and cleaner
than either hair or cotton, now so
extensively used throughout the
country.
President Gould and his family and
the families of the other officers of the
company who have been living in New
England, since the industry started
intend to make their permanent homes
in Minnesota.