Commerce High School - Commerce Yearbook (Cleveland, OH)

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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

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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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weights, causes the scale to tip instantly and the other end rises. A cap, governed by the tipping of the scale, covers over the pipe stopping the flow of the varnish, and the can is replaced by another to be filled in like manner. The varnish is stored in an aging room, where it is kept until ready for use. Then the tanks are emptied and new material placed. For this reason, there is approximately one million dollars’ worth of varnish stored all the time until properly aged for market. Though not as great as in the varnish department, provisions are made throughout the entire plant for the protection against fire. There are pails of sand and water, fire blankets, hand and automatic extinguishers in every convenient place in the establishment. An engine in the engine room furnishes power to pump water through the automatic extinguishers. As we were walking through the various rooms, our guide stopped at a little steel, fireproof door and rapped to be admitted. Upon investigation, we learned that the walls, too, were of steel, and the guide explained that this room contained eighteen thousand formulas for paints and varnishes, and that if these should be destroyed, they could never be replaced. They therefore had to be entirely protected from fire. In addition to these departments, a printing department and a can factory arc in constant operation. The tin comes to the company in sheets, where it is cut, shaped and soldered, tested, dried, and carried away by a shaft to the filling rooms. Nowhere is systematic labor more evident than in the can factory. Not one step is wasted by the employees in carrying the article to the various divisions of labor, for the men are seated according to the position their particular work bears to the completion of the can. Where this is impossible, great shafts are put in operation that carry the cans to the next workman. Division of labor as explained in economy is clearly demonstrated in this can making. Theu there is a department where all the printed matter necessary for the business is printed. Various kinds of magazines for the staff, agents, architects, painters, and the public are published here. Much of the raw material comes from the Sherwin-Williams’ mines in -Missouri and Kansas. No child labor is employed, and only two women, who we were told had begged employment, are in the company shops. The company has been able to bring manufacturer and consumer together and to secure changes which have been to the advantage of both parties. This company has recognized the importance of the employees’ recreation, has established the club room and organized clubs, and has installed lunch rooms, etc. They believe that the success of the company rests with the success of every individual person in their employ. Politeness and gentlemanly conduct among employees, toward one another, and toward visitors were everywhere in evidence. Each man seemed interested in producing his best, and in doing the things that would best conserve his firm’s interest. ELEANOR MATCHETT, ’13. 115