South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1919-02-23
LOCAL FACTORY
IS ONE UNIT IN
LARGE SYSTEM
Trip Through Factory Reveals
interesting Process of
Cabinet Making.

As an exponent OF South Bends
pre-war slogan. South Bend, World
Famed" the singer Mfg. CO. ranks
with the best OF the industrial en-
terprtses Of this city. Every day
carloads of Grated sewing machines
leave the local factory bound for all
parts Of the world A trip through
the great warehouses reveals huge
piles Of crates. stenciled with desti-
nations from Korea 20 South Africa.
from scotland TO the Philippines.
on the more than 80 acres of floor
space which the local plant con-
tains. something like 2,4OO finished
cabinets. complete except for the
head" are turned out daily. A
thousand OF the cabinets are sent TO
lslizabethport. y. j.. where the me-
chanical part is Installed, and from
there these machines are distrib-
uted. More than a thousand are
finished complete in the south Bend
plant every day. the heads being
sent here from the New Jersey
plant
Besides this mammoth production
OF completed cabinets, a set lin the
white" is finished about every four
seconds for shipment TO Glasgow,
Scotland, where the machines are
assembled. I'm the white" is the
term used 20 indicate cabinets cut,
planed and bored. ready to be put
together. but without the varnish
and stain.
One Unit i'm Big System.
The South Bend plant Of the Sing
er Mfg. CO. is only one Of the units
Of the great SYSTEM owned by the
company II is one Of the most i'm
portant units, however. since vir-
tually all OF the cabinets in which
Singer heads are installed are
built here. South Bend was chosen
as the site for the plant originally
because il was the center of the wal
nut and oak production fields at that
time. AS time passed the walnut
and oak disappeared from this sec
ton Of the country. but the plant
had been established here, and here
il remained
Singers have their own sawmills
in the south, where their timber is
cut from their own tracts. Enough
virgin timber to keep the local plant
operating for over 80 years is now
owned by the Singer company.
Twenty-t two hundred workers are
employed in the south Bend factory
at the present time. and this num-
her is growing daily. During the
war the number OF employees was
necessarily cut down, but things arc
rapidly getting back into normal
shape. officials say.
\ Trip Through Plant.
The best way perhaps. 10 illus
trate the really great extent of the
singer AIfg. Co. is TO take a trip
through the plant. The grounds
cover - acres. and seven miles OF
railway track are laid within the
property To the west of the build
inFs is the great lumber yard, in
which . coo. 600 feet of lumber are
constantly on hand
The first thing 10 see, no doubt
the one upon which all other parts
OF the plant depend. is the power
house. Let us visit there first
Engineers OF the Singer CO. can
tell to the ounce just how much coal
Is being consumed IN the boilers
because it is all weighed by auto
matte machines before being fed to
the merchautCal stOkers. The same
things hold true with the sawdust,
which furnishes more than so per
cent OF the fuel used. A careful
check is kept on the coal and saw
dust consumption. as yell as on the
draft used. and that is why one
rarely sees anything but a thin wisp
OF black smoke coming out OF the
big singer stacks. which are land
marks 10 the west OF the city for
miles.
The power house was built in
1919, AMI az the time OF its erection
was the last word in power plant
construction. The architects are the
same ones that designed the biz
Northwestern station at Chicago. IN
the building are six immense fur
naces and boilers. all fed automati-
cally. and these supply steam TO air
compressors, generators. pumps, and
al the rest OF the equipment Each
machine in the power house. from
the little supply pumps 10 the great
4.OOO-horsepower rotor turbines, is
in duplicate, so that nothing short OF
an earthquake can put the plant out
OF business.
Burn Up Sawdust.
The sawdust from the hundreds Of
machines utilized in shaping the
wood 10 the risht dimensions is
gathered up by q system Of fans and
pipes and delivered 20 the furnace
room. where IL is burned 10 make
rover 10 operate the saws that
make the Dust. Conservation was
one OF the watchword Of the Singer
company long before the war
started.
Very little OF the work on the
cabinet parts is done by hand. Each
machine has its own task, which II
performs 20 perfection. Hopper
feeding is utilized because * is much
more rapid. Drawer-sides come out
Of one machine az the rate OF so feet
a minute. while the machine next