San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1926-04-28
Efficiency Measures Are
Really Simple, Expert
Explains.

ers by all tanks beyond the
second is pumped from the
cutters back to the second
tank. from which it is again
distributed in the same fash
ion as before. From the first
to last the overflow feed and
gravity serve each successive
tank with sand suited to the
grinders it supplied. Garnet used in
the last grinders is graded by this
same method.
The process sounds simple-snd it
Is. Every well thought out process
is simple. And with the simplicity
and the absence of hand labor has
come greater safety. Glass making
used to be considered dangerous oc-
cupation. II is no longer so with Us.
For two years past we have lost
less than one hour per man due to
accident. And that we shall cut down.
TExTILH ADVENTURES
Spinning and weaving have come
down to us through the ages, and
they shaye gathered about them tradi-
ditiops which have become almost sac
red rules of conduct. The textile
Industry was one of the first to make
use of power, but also it was one of
the first to use the labor of children.
Many textile manufacturers thorough
ly believe that low cost production is
impossible without low-priccd labor.
The technical achievements Of the in
dustry have been remarkable, but
whether II has been possible for any
one to approach the industry with an
absolutely open mind, free from tradi.
ton, Is another matter.
We use more than hundred thou
sand yards Of, cotton. cloth and more
than $4,000 yards of wooden cloth dur
ing every day of production, and even
very tiny saving per yard would
mean good deal to US in the course
of year. That is why, several years
ago. we started our textile expert
inents, not with any. Thought of max
ing over the textile industry-for We
are manufacturers of motors-but
with the thought of finding some way
to avoid the fluctuations of the cotton
market and to get our own require
ments at lover price. ~
At first we took for granted that
we had to have cotton cloth--we had
never used anything but cotton cloth
as foundation material for tops and
for artificialsleather. We put in a
unit Of cotton machinery and began to
experiment. but, not being bound by
tradition, we had not gone far with
these experiments before we besen to
ask ourselves:
as cotton the best material we can
use here?'
And we discovered that we had been
using cotton cloth not because it was
the best but because of custom.
A linen cloth would undoubtedly be
stronger, because the strength of cloth
depends upon the length of the fibre,
and the fax fibre is one Of the longest
and strongest known.
Cotton bad to be grown thousands
of miles from Detroit. We should
have to pay transportation on the raw
cotton, IL we decided to go into cotton
textiles, and we should also have to
pay transportation on this cotton con.
verted into its motor car use-very
often back again to where it had been
grown. Flax can be grown in Mich
igan and Wisconsin and we could
have supply at hand practically
ready for use. But linen making had
even more traditions than cotton. and
no one had been able to do much in
linen making in this country because
of the vast amount of hand labor con-
sidered essential.
ELIMINATING HAND LABOR.
Cotton goods were luxury and cot
ton growing was unimpcrtant until Eli
Whitney invented his gin, for until
then, as everyone knows, the seeds
had to be picked out of cotton BY
hand-which was not only long and
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