Norwich bulletin., 1912-01-20

facilities offered by the site proposed l in Norwich for the factory of the American ThermOs Bottle company l together with the expectation of get ting out of cramped quarters and 1 bringing their entire plant under one ! roof, were reasons advanced for the | company wishing to leave New York, l to a Bulletin representative, who call l ed upon the president. William B. | Walker, this week. at their New York offices, 243-247 West Seventeenth l street.
 Reasons for Leaving New York. We consider Connecticut the best manufacturing state in the union" said MT. Walker in answer to the query as to what advantages they expected | to gain by removal from New York. l We use lot of brass goods and you 1 can't beat Connecticut for its brass | goods. factories. Your site, with it's 1 railroad and water freight shipping l facilities Is unequaled. At the present 1 time you can see only about one-third 1 of our plant here. and we are doing work on several floors and in cramped 1 quarters where we have to carry our l goods back and forth with much handling that would be unnecessary if we were in a factory on one floor, where our business could be carried on upon the U system, the raw mater ial starting at one end and moving in steady progression from one stage to the next till 1t was turned out fn- ] ished."
 Crowded in Now York Factory. A later inspection of the New York ! plant, when pictures of the industry in operation were taken, substantiated 1 President Walkers statement. In the ! twelve-story building in which the factory is located, the ninth, tenth and l eleventh, third and fourth floors are l used, and where the various processes l of making the bottles arc carried on, machinery. operatives and product are l crowded into such restricted quarters that 1t is impossible for the pictures l reproduced herewith to give any ade- quate idea of this busy industry where l ninety employees, men and women, were busily at work.
 LimitIess Possibilities.
 We have a product for which there Is a demand at every period of life, from the cradle to the grave and from 1 every class of people. We are only reaching one per cent. of the people at the present time. What the East man Kodak company was to Roches- ter, what the National Cash Register company was to Dayton. and the Un- l derwood typewriter to Hartford, we believe the Thernos company will be l to the city where it locates. We be-
 ieve we have a product for which there Is more of a demand than for kOdaks. The possibilities are limitless.'
 Two Buildings at Norwich Plant.
 At the present time we have be- tween 300 and 400 people working on Thermos material in this and our aux
 Hilary plants. We began with im- porting all our glass from Germany,
 but we are now getting American glass from Vineland x. J., and from Indiana. It IS one of the possibilities that we would make our own glass at the Norwich plant. We would do much of our leather work there also. l We would want a one-story brick building about 200 feet wide and S75 feet long, and so located on the lot ! that there would be a basement story to which spur track would lead from the railroad. We expect also to erect at once a building of similar size. We would pay taxes and insur- anee during the time the contract was in force with the Norwich company that is to erect the building.
 A Flood of Orders.
 We have at all times manufactured l on the ratio of 8 to 1 between manu- l featuring cost and retail price, sell ing at three times what it costs to make. and through improved machin-
 cry and the use of American glass instead of glass imported from Ger many We have been steadily cutting down manufacturing cost. Reductions in the retail price which ave have been able to make have resulted in such a flood of increased business that we are crowded to the limit to keep up with our orderE.'
 President Walker went into details on many significant points in connec- l ton with the company's business, as shown in the '"Thermos Pointers" in these columns, the facts contained therein being gleaned from his an- swers to inquiries made. the whole ! presenting convincing reasons why the citizens of this city should unite their strongest efforts to securing for Nor wich this growing and tn living in l dustry, which Is already receiving the 1 endorsement of so many Norwich l business men whom the local commit l tee is interesting.
 ! A D0SGS VVitI1ff1 d SSbiSs Generally speaking the Thermos 1 combination consists of two glass bot ties one inside the other and joined at I the neck, the space between the two | being a vacuum through which neither 1 heat nor cold penetrates. The inside bottle is the holder for any liquids | which the user may choose to place in | 1t The whole is enclosed in a metal 1 case. with screw cap, to protect the bottles from breakage, the Thermos ! bottle guaranteeing to keep boiling l hQuids hot 24 hours and ice cold uq- 1 tdls cold three days.
 l With this idea of double bottle in 1 mind 1t is easy to follow the processes W hich are carried out at the New York factory.
 Cracking and Drawing Down. This begins in the cracking room, l where the outside bottle, which is open | st both top and bottom at this stage, is cracked off to the proper length, both at neck and bottom, in a ma chine in which jet of gas flame plays upon the points marked by & diamond cracking the bottle off at the two marks.
 The Asbestos Pads the Secret
 The two bottles are next placed to- gether, having inserted between them l two sets of small asbestos pads, these asbestos endorsements between the bottles being a distinctive feature up- on which the patents owned by this company are based and are found in no other holding bottle made. In 1 other makes of heat-holding bottles the inside one must be supported al l the bottom, @ frequent source o1 breakage, but the reinforcement fur nished by these little asbestI1s pads ir the Thermos obviates any need of SUD- port at the bottom and there is none
 The insertion of the pads is done by female help. half a dozen being em- ployed at this work.
 Healing Flame for Minute Cracks. In the cracking room are also the 1 drawing down machines to which the