Commerce High School - Commerce Yearbook (Cleveland, OH)

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THE STUDY OF HOUSEFURNISHING. ONE of the things the students take up in the Art Department is the study of materials and colors suitable for furnishing a home. That is, they study wall papers and woodwork so as to find out what would make a harmonious room. For this purpose several business firms have given us books of wall papers. When the student has made a drawing of the room he selects desirable paper for it, considering the size of the room and the way in which it is to be lighted. In this way he finds out that a paper with a large pattern is not suitable for a small room, while a paper with a vertical design makes a low room appear higher. He finds, too, that the color of wall paper is important, and learns to select warm colors like tan or brown for a room with a north light. Samples of natural woods, such as light and dark oak, mahogany, etc., have been given to us by several lumber companies of Cleveland, while another has sent us samples of stained woods. These help the student to try combinations of wall paper and woodwork. While the students were engaged in color work last term, some Oriental rugs were loaned to us by a large department store. With these came dainty cretonnes suitable for hangings and portieres. It has been a great help to have these wall papers, woods, and fabrics which have been loaned or given to us by Cleveland business firms. In using these, the student gains a knowledge of suitable furnishings for the home and becomes familiar with the things actually sold in the stores for this purpase. RUTH SMITH. THE SHERWIN WILLIAMS COMPANY. Report of a visit of the Local Industries Class. THE Sherwin-Williams Company is a concern in which efficiency is the watch-word, and this company, in organization and methods of manufacture, typifies a really progressive American institution. The first object of any company is, of course, to accumulate wealth, and this is undoubtedly what Mr. H. A. Sherwin had in mind when he opened a small retail paint store in the year 1866, at 601 Canal Road. This through Mr. Sherwin’s effort prospered, and was later organized into the Sherwin-Williams Company, for the manufacture and sale of paints, oils and varnishes. Here is a firm that is efficacious, not only because of the high quality of product, but because of the marked degree of efficiency and harmony among its force of employees. The company not only has a rigid code of business rules, which is strictly adhered to, but in addition to thus, a code of principles that concerns the employees. It was the good fortune of our “Local Industries Class” to visit this plant on January twenty-seventh, when we realized that the company's injunctions and suggestions were wisely followed. Nothing can be said to express the prevailing spirit of the firm more accurately than a few of the principles quoted directly from their own printed matter: 112

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Pistons about a foot in diameter and six feet long, similar in structure to bicycle pumps, pump cold air, which is sent through huge pipes and emptied into a tall, oven-like structure called a “stove,” containing a network of fireclay brick, that has been heated by burning some of the gas just mentioned. Here the air is heated to such a degree that one can hardly imagine the temperature: in cold figures it is about 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit. Sixteen hot air pipes about a foot in diameter carry the hot air from the stoves to each of the furnaces. As the hot air is forced through the l ed of limestone, coke and ore. the coke is brought to such a temperature that it will draw the oxygen away from the iron ore. This forms a gas. the scientific name of which is Carbon Monoxide. This gas is not allowed to escape into the atmosphere, but is collected by means of pipes leading from the top of the furnaces. After this gas has been cleansed it is used in running machinery, heating stoves, etc., as we have mentioned. As the above mentioned process is continued, naturally an enormous amount of molten iron occupies the lower part of the furnaces. These portions of the furnaces are kept cool by having cold water pipes around them, from which water continually trickles over the sides of the furnaces. The earthy matter, such as sand, rocks and like substances, combine with the limestone to form a slag, which floats on the top of this molten iron and is taken off through outlets at the sides of the furnaces that lead to cone-shaped ladles. It takes about twentv minutes for one of these ladles to fill. This slag, when it is drawn off, is white hot, and must necessarily cool somewhat, but is not allowed to harden, and while it is still in a liquid form it is dumped into places that are desired to be filled, or when cooled it may be ground and used for cement. After this slag is taken off other openings are made lower down for the iron to flow out. The iron is then allowed to flow along sand troughs about twenty feet long, which lead into cars or iron ladles. When these ladles are filled the molten iron is completely covered with coal dust. Because of the great heat of the molten iron the coal dust burns, liberating heat which keeps the top of the iron molten while being shipped to the rolling mills in Newburgh. When it is not shipped to the rolling mills it is run into molds, small receptacles about four inches high, seven inches wide and fourteen inches long, which are fastened side by side to an endless belt which is in continuous motion. These molds are whitewashed on the inside at the end of every trip, so the iron will not stick to them. As the belt reaches one end the molds are filled with molten iron from the ladles, and by the time they reach the other end the iron is somewhat cooled and solid. As the molds pass beneath the supporting apparatus to return to their starting point, they automatically dump their contents into a cooling trough of water. This molded form of the iron is called pig iron, and the pigs separately weigh from seventy to one hundred pounds. This is the final act in producing the iron in its first stage. m ANNA KRIVETS. '13.

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1. To foster good fellowship among ourselves and to take pleasure as well us profit out of our work. 2. To strive constantly for the improvement and advancement of the business and of ourselves. 3. To be considerate, polite and courteous in all our dealings within and without the Company. 4. To be high toned in everything, everywhere. 5. To grow in knowledge and character as well as in size. Just inside the door as we entered was the elevator man, one of those good-natured. elderly darkies, happy as a lark at all times. lie seemed to know who we were and what our business was. for he invited us to step into the car and he would take as upstairs. On leaving the elevator, we passed through several office rooms where we were told two hundred and fifty men and women were employed in the various departments, such as the Executive Department, Treasurer’s Department, General Accounting Department, Purchasing. Service, Printing, Auxiliaries, etc. The offices are neat, well ventilated and attractive. We were conducted from the offices to a club room, where we were detained until a few belated members of the class had arrived. Here indeed was a place of interest, for this was the meeting-room of the Top-Notchers Club. Lectures and contests are features of the education and entertainment held in this room. There are several games and a piano for the use of the employees, whilie the walls are decorated with pennants and pictures. As our visit was to be devoted more to the industrial side of the concern than to the business side, we began our tour through the factory part at once, under the leadership of two competent guides, who took pains to answer all questions promptly and completely. Owing to the fact that several rooms were occupied with the same kind of machinery and processes, it was necessary for US to visit but a few rooms in proportion to the number in the entire plant. Our visit had been systematically planned, so as to enable its to follow in successive steps the manufacture of the paint. A miniature paint plant, or the testing room, was the first department to which we were conducted. Small quantities were being prepared by their special chemists, and tested on pieces of wood or tin by exposure to the weather; data as to the time of exposure and the ability to withstand weather and sunlight are carefully kept. There is but one process carried on in a room, so the machines throughout a room are alike. The mixer is a large iron machine which stands higher than a man and with a diameter of about three feet. The pigment, oil, etc., of which the paint is composed is put in at the top of the machine and thoroughly mixed by rotating machinery. Then it runs through a pipe into the grinders on the floor directly below. Oil is added to it in the grinder, and the entire mixture undergoes a process similar to that of making flour in the old-fashioned mill with stone burrs as grinders. The paint, entering the grinder at the top is forced between two heavy, flat round stones with grooves chiseled in at a distance of about four 113