Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1917-03-13
MONARCH HOG
TROUGH FACTORY
Organization Now Being Capitalized
At $50,oOo.-one of the Best
Industries in the
City.
HOW THE TRoUGHs ARE MADE
Company is Now Supplying Many
Customers Throughout the En-
tire Country.

An industry which has grown tc
surprising proportions in a little
over year, is the Monarch HOG
Trough factory, located just north
of the Illinois Central right of way
on the north side. A casual glance
at the plain, ,lnpretentious brick
structure 100 40 feet in size would
not reveal the fact that the little
factory Is now being incorporated al
$4,000 and is supplying troughs tc
all the states of the middle West
But such is the case.
The organization is undeniably
the youngest" in the city for the
oldest director is SO years of age and
the youngest 2S. 1t is young in.
dustry and the young blood of the
directors is only another element in
it's favor. The Office force consists OF
E.. S. Johnson, president and general
manager; E. L. Rood, office manager
and Miss Mabel Owen stenographer
James A. Metz is factory foreman
and a force of eight men is employed
in the factory proper. Mr. Johnson,
the new manager, came to this city
January 1st, from Waterloo. He has
an enyiable record as salesman for
the Burrows Adding-Machine, hav-
ing in the three or four years he
served that, company been all the
time at the head Of the fist OF the
four hundred statesmen. This record,
it can be said in justice to Mr.. john
son, was not obtained from him, but
Is common knowledge in the banks
of the city where the Burrows add
ing machines are placed. MIR. john
SON made frequent business visits
to this city and it was upon one OF
these visits that he became inter-
ested in the Monarch hog trough as
a proposition.
The factory was, first located in
the east part of the city, but last
fall the new building was erected
on the north side charging the floor
space, and from present indications
this will have to be enlarged within
a year. The average daily output is
from 80 to SO troughs day and
gradually new machinery is being
substituted for the old, for the saw
ing of both time and labor and cleo
tricity furnishes power for running
The company has so far found little
difficulty in obtaining steel and for
the next six months is "safe" on
steel. A finished trough-eight feet
in length--retails at $40 and there
is no wish to increase this price even
though steel is higher.
The talking point OF this hog
trough is that it can be cleaned and
emptied without entering the hog
pen where the trough is situated.
This feat is accomplished by manu-
featuring the trough proper, separ-
ate from the steel framework, enab-
ling the operator to draw it outside
the fence to clean. The trough runs
on angle iron rims upon which a
new improvement has recently been
made. The first step in the manu-
facture of the troughs is the cutting
of the steel strips into the correct
lengths. All work is done in the
factory with cold steel and it was af-
ter considerable trials that salts
factory machine was found for
punching the holes for rivets. The
cutting machine slices off the steel
bars as neatly as a cheese knife
works through cheese and these
strips, each of correct length. are
then taken by the next operator and
placed in horizontal position under
the punching machine which meas
ures the distance between rivets and
then punches the holes.
The rivets are affixed through the
cold steel and the frame work par
TALLY completed at this opera
tion. The wonderful machine call
ed the "bulldosing" machine makes
the top of the framework; a strip
of cold steel is bent over a molding
arm, by one dexterious pull of a
strong mans arm, and down comes
great weight of iron, working hor-
izontically. to mold the v-shaped
steel into = sort Of ducks wish