Commerce High School - Commerce Yearbook (Cleveland, OH)

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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

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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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inches from center to circumference. These grooves form a lip from which the paint may How out at certain places and thus avoid any possibility of waste. The machines containing the black paint have three such stone grinders or burrs while those containing a colored paint have but two. The machine is so built that the paint drops from the top outlet into the opening, and then goes through the second grinder and so on until the last, from which it is turned into cans ready to be marked and packed for shipping. Although there has been some oil added during the previous process, the paint is still thick and is sold iu this paste form to the dealers, who may dilute it one hundred per cent or more, depending upon the use to be made of it. In one large room there are but two or three men employed; these feed the machines, weigh the paint, label the cans, and do various other duties. The mixing and grinding process is the same throughout the plant, the only difference being the use of different colors or qualities, such as coach colors mixed with a Japan quick drier, first quality oil colors for tinting purposes mixed with linseed oil, cheap heavy paints, new process red-lead paint used by plumbers, buggy paints, enamel paints, etc., etc. The oil used throughout the plant is stored in large vats which stand in the yard •. from there it is pumped through pipes to the various departments as needed. The white lead crusher is a low. fiat recptacle, entirely open. Inside, extending through the center, is a large stone roller, weighing several tons, that may be set revolving. From the crusher the lead runs into a reservoir and is strained and poured into cans holding fifty, twenty-five, or twelve and one-half pounds. Large quantities of paint are manufactured as ordered. There is a stock room, where small cans of paint are kept, and orders of less than a case are filled from this room. Next to the paint, varnish forms an important product. The resin and other ingredients are put into an iron vat that resembles au immense bowl, about three feet in diameter. The bowl or kettle is set up on two large wheels, thus making it possible for the workmen to push it over the fire. Along one side of the varnish-boiling room arc several coke fires, built in kilns made in the cement floor and separated one from the other by brick walls. The kettle is rolled into one of these furnace-like compartments, where the varnish boils. In some cases, the gums must be boiled separately, and some varnishes require as many as six boilings. Some must be thinned with turpentine, and some require both turpentine and benzine. The varnish is then strained, by being forced through several layers of cloth a little heavier than canvas, and this completes the manufacture of the varnish. Varnish cans are then filled by an automatic machine, which resembles a medium sized scale. The balance is set at the number which indicates the number of pounds a can should contain. The man in charge places the empty can directly under an opening, releases a lever and the varnish flows down until the can contains the exact measure. At this point, the can, overpowering the 114