The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1911-03-30
ONLY ONE IN THE
WIDE WORLD
Pie Plate Factory Has
No Competition
Fairfield Inventor Develops Remark
able Business frem Small Begin
ming.

Somerset county has the only wood
fibre pie plate factory in the world.
| 1t is located at Fairfield and turns
out annually three hundred million
plates, which are shipped from there
to customers in every part of the
world The business was started at
/ Shawmut about twelve years ago by
NJ l.. Reyes and the development
/ from the small beginning at that time
reads like a romance.
At first the pie plates were made in
a crude fashion largely by hand, and
get them properly dried. They found
such a ready sale that the inventor
kept at work on the problem, and
finally solved it. Not, however, until
he had been down to the brink of dis
pair. While the whole process was
in the elementary stage, a friend sug-
gested that the plates could be dried
by a chemical process, and with the
hope of perfecting this idea Mr. Reyes
went to the scientific men at Harvard
university. The chemical process
was indeed possible, but was too
costly. Subsequently the hot air pro-
cess was evolved, and since then the
business has grown by leaps and
bounds.
The most interesting thing in the
big factory at Fairfield is the highly
ingenious machine that fashions the
liquid pulp into the form of a plate.
The material comes from the pulp
mills in large rolls which are worked
over with water until they are of
consistency that will flow freely.
Then the liquid is pumped into the
watts where the moulding is done.
Here there is a big wheel, and at
the end of each spoke there is a brass
wire screen shaped like the inside
down into the vat, the pump starts
sucking the pulp through it. and in
the few seconds that it remains out
of sight, thick layer of pulp is ac-
cumulated. When this comes up out
of the vat another screen shaped like
the outside Of a plate comes down
over the pulp, and sqVeezes some of
the water out. AS the wheel continues
to turn, compressed air is turned in
behind the first screen while suction
is applied to the second, so that the
plate is taken off of the place where
it was first formed.
AS the machine continues the sue
ton back of the second screen chang
es to pressure just as the plate comes
opposite another wheel ready to pick
it up once more BY this last it is
in turn carried around horizontally
until over the drying screen, and here
the suction again changes to pressure
and the plate drops. 1t now rests
upon a long belt of woven wire that
Is luONIHB constantly lHlOuSu lue uiy-
ing oven, where it encounters a tenn
perature of some 250 degrees. The
belt moves slowly through with its
load, and at the far end of its jour
ney goes over a roll and starts back
Here the plates, now dry and firm,
fall to the counter on the floor below,
where they are gathered and counted
by girls, and packed for shipment
The most impressive feature about
the whole factory is the very small
number of operatives employed. Two
girls go from machine to machine to
wash down with the hose from time
to time, and that is all the attention
required. More hands are required
in the counting and packing, and sew
eral men are necessary to operate the
power plant ane the grinding ma
chimes, but on the whole the ingenu-
ity of the inventor has reduced the
labor cost of pie plate to micro
scopic proportions.