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i
DAYS
FACTOEIES;
THE MANUTACTUKING INDTJSTEY OF GREAT BRITAIN DESCRIBED,
ILLUSTRATED DV NUMEROUS RNGRAVINGS OF MACHINES AND PROCESSES.
SERIES !.— LONDON.
By GEORGE DODD.
LONDON:
CILinLES KNIGHT & CO., aa, LUDQATE STREET.
l-ON'OOXi
CONTENTS.
ptf
1. Inlioductory Chipter.oD the IVadMof Loudon 1
2. A Dajp At a Brewtrr 17
3. A Day ata DUtillery 11
4. A Day at a Vin^^ and Britiih-Wioe Pietory ...... G5
A. A Daj at a Sugu- Refinery 89
a A Day at a Tobacco and Snuff Factory 1 13
7. A Day at a Hat-Factory 137
8. A Day at a Lealber-Factoiy Ifil
O. A Day at a Soap and Candle Factory 1S7
la ADay afDayandHartinV 208
11. A Day attha LoudonMuble-WorkB 233
12. A Day at a Flint-Glaai Factory 2S7
13. A Day at a Floor-Cloth Factory 281
14. A Day at a Cfanreh-Clock Factory and a BeQ-Foimdry .... 305
15. A Day at a Printing-Office 320
10. A Day at « Bookbinder'a 303
17. A Day at a PianoTorte-Factory 387
18. A Day at the Weetminater Gas-Work 411
19. A Day at a Coach-Factory 432
30. A Day at a Ship-Yard 459
21. A Second Day at a Sbip-Yaid 480
22. A Day at a Rope and SaitCloth Factory 504
SS. A Day at « Copper and Lead Factoi? 020
DAYS AT THE FACTORIES.
I
I
1.— INTBODUCTORV CHAPTER ON THE TRADES OF LONDON.
Thb bulk of the inhabitants of a great city, such as London, have very indistinct notions of llie raeans whereby the neceraaries. the comforts, or the luxuries of life are furnished. The simple fact, iJmt he who has money can command every variety of eicbangrahle produce, seems to act as a veil which hides the producer from the consumer. The coined piece of gold is tlie general agent, the factor, the broker, through whose medium the labours of all become available to all ; and, like as in the case of other agencies, the principals have but a vague knowledge of the sources whence the supply is obtained. Wlio, if he were to catalogue the articles of food, or of clothing, or of furniture, or other commodities which contribute lo his daily comfort, could enumerate the sources whence they are obtained, and the general ciia- racler of the processes by which lliey are manufactured ? The number of such is probably very small. And yet the inquiry is an interesting and a valuable one : for the social features of a city or town are largely dependent on these two questions, — whether manufactnrea are carried on therein to a notable extent, and whether the mode of production partakes more of the factory or of tlie handicrafi character. Again, the means of transit from one town to another depend in a striking degree on the relative positions of the two towns with respect to manufac- tures ; if each consumes largely the produce of the other, their mutual wants will not fail lo lead to the construction of roads, of canals, of railroads, of shipping, and other facilities for transit; and these again give activity to various departments of commercial industry.
Selecting London — the busy centre of the commercial world — as the Bcene of inquiry, it may not be impracticable to take a rapid view of the chief departments of industry eihibited therein, so far as they come under the denomination of ' manufactures.' Among many different classifications of productive industry one might be adopted
(
3 INTRODUCTION.
which should group manufactures under six comprehensive headings, according as they contribute to man's comfort in relation to Fdod cmd Hedlth— Clothing and Personal Ornament — Dwellings and Furniture '^Instruction and Amusement — Means of Transit — and Means of Pro- ducing ; and in respect of all these branches of manufacture it may first be asked. Are they carried on in London less or more extensively than in the country ? And next, Are they mere handicrafls, carried on by individuals of whom each one makes a complete article, or do they involve the investment of capital and the division of labour inci- dent to A factory f
Beginning with the manufactures included under the first heading we are at once struck with the difference exhibited between those relating to solid food and those relating to liquids ; the former being mostly carried on in comparatively small establishments, while the latter involve arrangements of great magnitude. The London porter breweries, for example, are among the ' lions ' of the metropolis, so vast are their dimensions, their vessels, their plan of operations, and the capital invested. Distilleries, too, exhibit the same remarkable largeness of feature ; and Vinegar- works may be included in the saint list. In all these three departments the metropolis confessedly takes the lead ; and there seems reason to believe that a great magnitude of arrangement is in some degree indispensable to their profitable main- tenance, for the number of such establishments, year after year, remains pretty nearly the same. Wine, as is well known, is not an English product, except in that humble degree which the term * British' qg[ 'home-made' wines indicates; and even this is much more of a domestic than of a manufacturing character. There are, however, two or three establishments in London which carry on this branch of manufacture to a much larger extent than the provinces can exhibit ; and the like may be said of the beverage known as ' soda- water,' the production of which, and of other liquids bearing some analogy to it, involve mechanical arrangements more extensive than would generally be supposed, although insignificant when compared with some of those above noticed. Milk, of course, can hardly be deemed a manufacture, and London is placed similarly with other large towns in respect to its supply.
Turning to the more important subject of solid food, it will be found that scarcely anything deserving the name of a ' factory ' is involved directly in the preparation of edibles. Our bread — whether in the
«M««
INTItODUCTION, 3
fi of ' four-pound ' or ' two-poinid,' ' cottage ' or ' Freneli," ' brown ' or ' whealen ' — goes through many hniiAs before it is placed at our i'm- posal, but does not involve Iwgc manufacturing amuigeracniB. The milla which grind the corn can scarcely be said to esist in London at all ; and the operations of the baker are carried on in liis small ' linke- house,' where two or tliree men can probably make all the brenil for which he can find a sale. 'Metropolitan Bread. Companies' have, indeed, at former times been started, with the object of maTiufacturing bread on a large scale: but these were among the commercial bubblpa which bunt soon after formation ; and the only ' bread-factory ' de- serving of the name, near Iiondon, is the magnificent btsciilt-baking establishment in the Victualling Yard at Deptford.
The animal food which forms bo large a portion of general sus- tenance in London — whether fresh meat, or bacon, or hams, or &ggs, or r butter, or liah — undergoes a very small amount of change — hhing, indeed, which can be denoiuinated a manufacture in Lotidon, reaches the purchaser. The same, loo, may be said of the larga l9k of vegetable food. Sugar is one of the very few articles used as i which involve extenaive manufacturing arrangememla ; but it ie re- ukable tliat sugar, as known to the maas of consumers, undergoes no of manufacture whatever in England — a sugar-refinery having t its object merely the preparation of white, or 'lump,' iugar from oon brovm 'moist* Mustard is another article which re- ires tolerably extensive arrangements for iia preparation ; but nrastard-mills are, we believe, more numeroiu in the provinces than in London. Pepper, salt, spices, sauces, pickles, preservas, and the thousand and one minor preparations which help to fill up the n
K modem table-luiury, all come under one of these two cnni; her they require nothing which can be termed manufacture, i I manufactured out of I^ondon. It may be deemed a misnomer to rank tobacco and snuflT among Seles pertaining lo sustenance or health, but, wherever we rank rn, they involve manufairturing arrangements of much ingenuity, of lich London has a share at least equal to its importance among the acaie of cities. Tliis is perhaps scarcely the case with respect tu thoM branches of manufacture which relate to drugs and chemicals : ' drug- milb ' and ' chemical- works,' and manufactories, on a large scale, of commodities pertaining more or less to the medical art, are to be found in open spots of ground in the vicinity of London ; but the North of
i INTRODUCTION,
England maj be deemed the principal theatre of these operatioiMk The dentist, the 'artificial-eye' maker, the 'cork-leg' maker, the ^acoustic-tube' maker, and others who contribute by their manual dexterity to ease pain and sustain health — however valuable may be their labours— «re manufacturers only on a small scale.
Glancing next at productive industry in respect of clothing and perianal decoraHon^ we cannot fail to remark these two facts — ^that the factory system is much more developed in this than in the former d»* partment of industry, and that Liondon is but sparingly supplied with these factories. When we consider how large a portion of the modem attire of both sexes is formed of the textile fabrics — silk, cotton, linen, woollen, and worsted — and how small an amount of this is manu£u> tured in London, we begin to appreciate the dependence of the metro- polis on the country districts for a supply. Let a man enumerate the various articles which form his dress, and he will probably find that the woven and fulled material for his coat comes from the West Riding of Yorkshire, or from the West of England ; that the linen for his shirt is of Irish manufacture ; his gloves, if of silk, probably came from Derby, and his leather gloves from Worcester ; to Nottingham he is indebted for his stockings, and to Glasgow for his ' Bandana ' hand- kerchief. The materials for female dress, too, are dependent in an equally large degree on the labours of the provinces. In the district of which Manchester is the centre are produced enormous quantities of the various cotton fabrics, while Norwich contributes its crape, Derby its silks, Coventry its ribbons, Nottingham its bobbinet and machine-made lace, and Bedfordshire its straw-plait — omitting men- tion of the infinite variety of materials obtained from the Continent
No one thinks of looking to London for a linen, a woollen, or a worsted factory ; nor — although there is certainly one cotton factory in the metropolis— should we think of ranking cotton among its manu- factures. With respect to silk, the circumstances are rather curious ; for although a large quantity is manufactured at Spitalfields, yet it is here totally distinct from factory operations. The spun silk which is to form the warp and weft of woven fabrics is prepared in silk-mills, of which we believe there is not one in London. The humble hand- loom weaver of Spitalf elds obtains the requisite quantity of warp and weft from the manufacturer, and works it up in his own poverty- stricken apartment, which often contains his loom, his bed, his kitchen, his family, and his birds and flowers (for the genuine Spitalfields
INTRODUCTIOK. a
in birds and flower*, under all his trial* and difficulties).
But although scarcely any woven fabrics are produced in London (and those which are can hardtj come within the cImb of factory pro- duce), the arrangements for working up these niaterinls into garments are liere developed to an estraordinnry extent. Tailors and dress- makers are to be reckoned, not by thousands, but by tens of thoiiaand«. it may likewise be said in reference to boots and shoes, for shoe- ig the most numerous of London artisans; but here ber feature is observed, for the leatfaer used in this manufacture t* Irfjndon more extensively than in any other part of England : ideed tlie large district of Berniondsey derives its chief infpurtance its tanneries and leather- factories. AVe liave no ' coat- factories ' boot-factories,' no assemblages of men in large msny-sturied ildings, manufacturing costs and boots with tliose apptiHncps uf machinery and division of labour which distinguish a factory. Both are handicraft employments, wliicli can be carried on at llie home of workman. There was at one time, during the last war, a ahoe- Jtrictly deserving of the name, established by Mr. Brunei making shoes for the army by machinery ; but taking it as a ich of national industry, shoe-making is almost independent of machinery.
To a man's Aof the same remark cannot be applied as to his coat or Ilia boots. The whole article is made from the raw material, and to a greater extent in London than anywhere else, by a connected series of processes in one establishment : the sheep's wool and the beaver's furry pelt are brought to London, and from these niHterials the glossy beaver hat is mainly formed by a chain of processes whose links have much of a factory character about them.
In what manner female labour is bestowed in making articles of dress is too well known to need recital. Here, from the Stepney seamstresses who wear out life by making shirts at a penny a-piece, to the court mil- liner who is surrounded by the luxuries of life, all produce their results by the slender needle and the supple thread, by dexterity of finger, by patience and endurance, and by such lengthened hours of labour as men would rebel against. In some few occupations, such as arlificial-flowermakingjfeatiier working, and so forth, other implements Ides the needle and thread and scissors are required ; hut in the
are h ^Bmnc
• INTRODUCTION.
large bulk of female emplojmenta, as directed to drees, there is a ain- gular uniformity of working apparatus, of posture, and of general pro- cedure.
If we leave the textile materials of dress, and notice the Yarioua appendages and ornaments which modem taste deems indispensable to it, we find that a large number of manufactures at once come before us. The trifling pin which assists in the toilet, as well as the needle and the thread employed in making a dress, all come from distant parts of England. The pin, it is probable, was brought from Gloucestershire ; the needle from Redditch ; the sewing cotton and silk from Derby ; — the manufacture of these articles being almost unknown in London. Then again, buttons and buckles, clasps and studs, hooks and eyes, and the numerous small articles of metal pertaining more or less to dress, are brought principally from the north. Those decorative appendages which remind us that ' all is not gold that glitters,' such as chains, guards, bracelets, rings, &c., are largely manufactured at Birming- ham, as well as a portion of the really valuable jewellery: but it is probable that the larger portion of the gold, silver, and jewel manufacture, in its highest and most costly form, is carried on in London.
As an occupation closely connected with the manufacture of dress may be mentioned that of the dyer. This trade is not carried on in London on anything like the scale which the north of England exhibits, because all our woven fabrics are dyed before being consigned to the warehouseman in London, if not even before being woven. The chief dyers in the metropolis are those in Bermondsey who dye hats and leather, and those in various parts of London who re-dye partially worn articles of dress.
As cleansing agents in connection with the person and the dress, we must not forget soap, and soda, and pearl-ai^ and blacking. All these are manufactured on what may be deemed a large scale, the first and the last principally in London. Indeed the other two are also largely made here, but they may be more appropriately associated with the north of England, especially since the changes which modem che- mistry has wrought in the modes of producing these alkalis.
A glance may next be taken at some of iJie manufacturing opera- tions by which our dwellings are built and stocked with useful fiimi- ture and implements. The raw materials, in this as in other cases.
INTkODUCTION. 7
u'e brought fram distant parte ; the stone from Yorkshire or from Portland, or some other rocky district ; the aUte from Westmoreland or Witles ; the timber from NorwnT nr Cuiadn ; while the bricks and tilei are made in the 6elds in the nei^hboarhood nf Lnndon. The brick- layer, the mason, the cwpentw, the joiner, the slater, — all are artimu or hondicmfldiiien, in tlie usual meaning of theae terms, tod dn not generally work together on anything; like a facinr; ijstem. Marble- working has within tlin last few years been brought under the upen- 'tion of machinery, which in some degree sett it a[<art from the occu- pations just named. Gla«s-making has always been one of the rooet notable of our manufactures, and is carried on, in some of its branchet, on a large scale in London ; although window-glass and plate-glu* are more extensively produced in the nortli of England. Saw-mills for timber have come prominently into use ; bal thii can scarcely be called a branch of manufacture.
The painter is another whose lahoun mtist be claaaed liere, ai those of an artisan ; but the preparation of his materials involves manafac- turiiig arrangements of considerable magnitude, to some extent in London, and tu a still larger extent in some other parts of England. Among anch are white-lead works, colour worka, oil and vamish works, anil turpentine works.
When we turn our attention to the innumerable articles which come tinder the denomination of * household furniture,' we find liow largely the inhabitants of I<on<Ion are indebted to country manufacturrrB for the supply. Our carpets and rugs, our grates and fendern, our tire. irons, and tlie variety of implements and vessels made of iron and brass, found in every house, our plates and dtslies, cups and saucers, knives and forks — all are brought from the north of England ; or at least if any are made in London, the number is too limited to allow of tlicsc branches of manufacture being ranked among those belonging to London. Floor-cloth and pB]>er-hangingi are London manufacture*, carried on in large premises, and by a routine of proceaaes very similar throughout. Thelables,thechairH,the bedsteads, the beds, the mottreises, tJie glass- frames, the picture-frames, the window cornices,— all are made to a vast extent in London, but not generally in large factories : they are iJie productions of tradesmen, each of whom can carry on a tolerably extrnaive businesa without greet extent of room, or a large number of workmen. Clocks, time-pieces, and watches may perhaps he included in OUT present category. These are assuredly manu&ctured to a large extent
1 I
• INTRODUCTIOK.
in London ; one entire district, that of Clerkenwell, being chieflj occii- pied hj artiBana in these departments of labour — some of whom, saeh as those engaged in the manufacture of church clocks, carry on their operations on a large scale. Yet even here we have a curious instance of the dependence of the London makers on the workmen of the north of England; for it is understood that the 'movement' or wheel and pinion work of almost every watch said to be made in London is actually produced in Lancashire, the London watchmaker being merely the worlanan who puts together the separate parts made by others. Proposals have recently been made to establish what might correctly be termed a watch factory ; but up to the present time nothing has been known in London which can in any sense come under that designation.
Taking up next that item in our classification which relates to instruction and amusement^ the mind at once dwells upon the printing- machine, and the agency by which it is brought to bear upon the spread of information, as occupying a prominent position in respect to this matter. Whether we regard the arrangements connected with the printing of a book, of a newspaper, or of parliamentary proceedings, London undoubtedly takes the lead among the cities of the empire. In no other British town or city are there printing-offices on so large a scale, or so many printing-machines congregated in one spot, or so many workmen contributing to this object by their combined exertions. Yet at the same time it is observable that the paper which is thus brought into useful requisition is not a London manufacture : there are no paper-mills in the metropolis, nor within several miles of it The ink employed is made in London, but does not involve manufacturing arrangements on a large scale. The binding of books is, like the print- ing, a department of labour essentially metropolitan : there is proba- bly no oUier town in England where the extent of book-binding is such as to warrant the construction and arrangement of a large building, on factory principles, for this purpose.
The number ojf occupations in London whose tendency is to contri- bute to the instruction and amusement of the inhabitants is extremely large ; but it does not appear that many large manufacturing arrange- ments are involved in them. Take, for instance, a pair of globes, a case of drawing instruments, a telescope, a microscope, a set of instru- ments used by the surveyor— all these require mechanical ingenuity of a very high order ; but it is the ingenuity of the individual workman,
INTnODUCTION. »
F*Fho (Hiiild exercise his vocation as well in a small room as in h largr faclory. and perhaps belter. The implements and inatruinento employed in scientific inveatigations of every kind are similarly depetident, for their production, on manual dexterity, and not on faclory combinations ; while those conducive to education, in schools, mechanics' i colleges, and universities, are still less comples than the others.
Amusement, like instruction, presents one prominent wherein factory arrangements on a large scale are involved. Bookx and piano-fortes are each, in London, produced on a scale which totally eclipses the productions of the provinces. Nay. there is perhaps not one occupation, throughout the whole range of productive industry, in which the metropolis mainisins a more marked pre-eminence than in the manufacture of piano- fo rtes ; for these instruments are classed among those wherein a kind of conimercinl halo envelops the nnmea if the principal manufaeturers. This preference for London-made , and the spread of musical lasle within the present century, factory arrangements on an eatremely large scale in refer- to piano- fortes.
Other musical instruments are manufactured ta a much humliter extent. Organs, indeed, froni their large dimensions, require corre- sponding nrrangements for iheir manufacture, which hears considerable resemblance to that of a piano-forte in many parts. Haqis, guitars, violins, violoncellos, — all require more delicate skill than extensive arrangements for Uieir production ; and the game may likewise be observed of wind instruments made of wood, such as the flute, the clarinet, and the flageolet; and those made of braas, such as lioms, trumpets, and bugles. Tube-drawing and cylinder-boring form steps in the manufacture of many of these instruments ; but the finishing processes which follow are examples of delicate manipulation, generally carried on in small workshops.
Jf we turn from music to the drama, we find certainly extensive ^hanical arrangements involved in the economy of a theatre ; hut course only appliances, to this particular purpose, of lents of labour properly classified elsewhere. The carpenter e materials and works in the same manner as another car- lie scene-painter; BO the tailor, With respect to those departments of study pertaining to the fine of architecture, sculpture, figure-casting, painting, and engraving, menUU so far overpasses the mechanical as to take them almoitout
in
INTRODUCTION.
of our prc«rnt imumRrUiini. The nrchitpct timrely ri'ijuireii, frum Umj •rtisan uiil th» ninnurncturer, liin ^lappr antl ilrftwing-boiu'd, hU cnue of instrumenU, liis rulera aud cquarrs, uid tlieii drawn u^mn hia oim mini) Tur otticr wutUng tiiHt«riitli. The iKulptor Imi liis tnallet aiid lUa chueU, nnd hua pcrliapa Bnhnps' machine luding htm in cupytilg hi* model, oiiil hr may wear on apron or a nuty coat in hii aliidioi but the brains effect more than the ting;en in liut daily labour. In figurv- casting, it i» true, the oparutiuna are nearly uutlugous tu ihoae of « 4,'ammon fouiidry, or a hell fniindry, bo far ns rcganii the Irentment of th« melted metal ; but the prrgmration of ilie model, buried within tlt« und or clay, is a. work of high art. The «ame may be eaid of the ne«t plaster figure* vended bo largely by the itincrunl Italians : the nuutu- fscturo is conditctod in a number of small cstBhIUhmeiiti in tlio nrigb- bourhood of Hatton Garden ; but the original ligurcs — by whatever agency uopiod, and U> whoniBoever belonging — miut have been the result of a sculptor's labours. Tlie engmver uses his eiigraving-toula, and his etching- tool*, and liis ai)ii&rorti« for ' biting in,' aud is so fu dependent i>n the labour of iiianufaeturi-rB ; but the mental character of his own uperationa is sufficiently apparent. The painter, or "artist" in the general English accepution of the term, is pcrhapa mar« indebted to artisans for the pn^paration of his materials ttian any of the otiier parties mentioned in this paragraph. There are several tradesmen, denominated ' artists' coluurmcn,' who, in the preparm' Uon uf primed canvas, card-board, oil-colourti in bladders, water-coloara in cakes, brushes, pencils, paleties, easels, &c., carry on n tolerably busy circle of operations. Bnt these various articles are raiUer a collccljim of component parts, procured from workmen in various ijuurters, and brought into a saleable form, than the rctult of a uniform system uf iminufnctuj-ing.
Descending from the professor of the fine aria t« the child, we find llial toys give rise to no inconsiderable amount of manufacturing enter- prise. The ball and the bal, tbe whistle and the drum, the rocking* horse and the mimic carl, the hoop, the doll, tlie humming-top, tlie ■kipping- rope— all are sold so very largely as to render tlie employ- ment of a considerable number of persons nece-ssary to ilie niointeniuice of the supply. A wholesale toy warehouse would suqirise those who for the first time were to visit it, by the magnitude of its arrangements, the classification of its contents, and the indication which It affords of the importance of trifles when large in number. But although tho
I
I
INTBODUCTIOX.
II
wgreluniging is thus extensive, the manuiacture of tliese artiflus is not conducted in large f^ictories. The dealer collects hii store from a large number of persons, each of whom, perhaps in a very humble dwelling-, tiighions some of the Dumerous kinds of children's toys ; the little fragments of wood, of coloured paper, of leather, of tinsel, which enter so largely into the construction of these humble articlesi, are cut out and prepared principally by children, — indeed the price at which the toys are aold sufficiently indicates that the wages of labour in their manuiacture must be insufficient for adult workmen, eitcept in the bet- ter kind^ of toys. Could we dive into the alleys and narrow streets at the eoEt end of London, we should probably find many whole femilies L — father, mother, and children — employed in making U>ys under I their own poor roof; but a toy-factory, properly so called, doe* not perhaps exist in London.
Leaving now the manufacturing operations conducive to the instruc- tion and amusement of various classes, we may walk abroad, and see what manufactures have done in furnishing ua with menru of IrantU. Wliat do our streets present in this re«pe<;t ? In ibe first place the pave- ment— one of the prides of London — exhibits the contest now going on between stone, wood, and liitumen : the first has nearly succenled in resisting the inroads of the lliird, but seems to be gradunlly yielding W the second. No longer do we see, exceiit in the minor streets, the shapeless pebbles or rounded stones which used to form the carriage- way; 'dressed granite' has superseded them; while the foot-pave- , Kent exhibits its broad flag-stones, ranged with perfect regularity, and I liaving just such a slope as will carry off rain-water. Then again the F wood-pavement : — here we have hexagonal prisms ; in another place email cubes ; in s third larger cubes ; in a fourth blocks whose shelving sides form bonds of union with each other; in a fifth cakes of blocks pinned together, somewhat resembling (if such a simile be pardonable) a bati'b of rolls from a baker's oven. The bitumen, too, cxlubiu much of the care now bestowed on our roads and pavements, in its arrange menbi for producing a level and durable surface. All these, however, can scarcely be deemed branches of manufacture : they are applications ' of manual labour in a very rough and unpolished form, aided by few V buildings, few machines, and few tools. The saw-mill which sJiapes Fthe blocks is perhaps the nearest approach made to factory appendages or operations.
When we see how our streets are lighted, and the aid wliichthe pag-
INTBODllCnOW.
ii-llrr Htivp from this mtitt brilliant of it I. (1 Hn-i-ly fiii) U) reninrk liiiw nmniiractum in this I.I- iiii-HriH iif trnni'il j fur gui ii<, in the proper aenae ■.tai Kin- rnrrird <in in l^miliin ii> it vast extent, aitd r! iirti'iiix nf iiiHTHti'iii as iiifii'iiitini aa thvj are im- ...T.j.t -if hyft>mc dnyii, th<m};h t)i<-y Iwfriended the ': i-i,i'f\y hi- iiaid, a« in the ciur »f gas, to be con-
.■(, illuiiiinMc our Mrrct", wetiirnto the vehicle*
iiA li'Ti- <rv fiTul a vi>ry ccinii|iiruiius de|>art-
lai t-irr. (.'iinrh-niakiii); i* oarrinl iin in the me-
■'-•• >, Htirl jin>tHihly ill nhifrhiTHtylF of excellence,
J- •■.II, rlic lijrlit pig til tlie statc-roarh, from the
. /•', fr'ini the xninll eart tn the lieavj waggun,
/ •• , iiii'l ill imp )Mirl of Ijiiiiiliin several eata-
,. <'), III wliii'li the diuiKitii-il iirmngi>ment ufupc-
. '( III- whcclK nf vi-hii-lrn, tiMi, form another
f«<tiiri-; nH ilii likewiwe the varietiea nf har-
r. ;,' >i;riiiii, riiriiiNh<-in]iliiynirnt to Aconsiden-
'I lii--i- hil.liT, iiH wi'U na the nrtisana who
/.ulkuiir •lickH, iimlirclliis, jNittriM, atkd cliiga,
• „. II M>i»ll «'-<>l<-.
.- ■,] iiHivit mil i>r l.imd'in. we find that, inaddi-
/ ...ij jiini iijliiiliil Id, there i» si^nrcely any hut
' , I ■ i.< .111 i>r i-tigitieeritig tliiiii nminifacture.
.-..ih, 'if jiiilhM, nf hridgeR. nf vimluctn, of
I ' /' .ivutjiitiN, 'if niilwiiys — nil fnrm [>art of
' ■ ,. , ■■i./iiicf'riiiK- It in true thiit bricka
. '.i<>ir mid cpiiitrni mixed, ami inin raila
, . ;/. iiiiiiHii(-es (if mnnufacture which
' perceive tlint the means 1 (if a verjr reniHrkahle I* iif nicn'a hnnds, and a '■. Lunilon sliarea willi rti, in tlie jHMWcssiun of Knot India trade Imvb I ; iirid an extensive por- 'i'he shipa of war, aitd
mTRODlICTlON. 13
, sliipa generally, used formerly' to be miule ot-'casiunollir in k private yards ; but they are, we believe, now wliiiUy niaile in the Royal L-Dock-yards.
Many of tlie fittings ot a ship involve large branoliea of m&nufactiu-e, I «ich HS ropea and cables, chain-cables, anchors, sail-cloth, &c. ; and these i-iuniish employment fur extensive estAbliahments at the eiiat end of I London ; but ninesus of iron-work, though manufactured in 1/Oudon, are t associated with it as a branch of labour so much na with South "Wales, Bmterley, Rotherham, Dudley, the Camin, nnd other well-known places in the north. The same may perhaps be said of marine steani- engiuM and boilers, for the making of which tliere are a few MUblish-
»taenLj in London, but probably more in the busy districts of the north. Lastly, a glance may be taken at a department of productive indus- try whieh, for wajit of a better term, we will call meant of working or Worftini/ajeyifJ, and which will include a varied assemblage nf machines, engines, implements, instruments, tools, nnd vessels. These are, in fact, the means of which we avail ourselves in producing nil the commodi- ^^ ties included in the preceding five headings, hut which could scarcely ^L be included among the commodities themselves. For instance, al- ^B* though we rank the refining of sugar among the branches nf manufnc- ^V.lare pertaining to food, yet the manufacture of the sugar-pans, thecla- ^M fifying vessels, the charcoal cisterns, and the other apparatus indispen- ^Bvahle to the refining of sugar, must find a place somi^where. So like- ^^wise, though the painting of a piece of flo()r-cloth may he ranked ^^ among London manufactures relating to household furniture, yet the making of the loom wliich wove the canvas must evidently be classed in some otlier group. In a multitude of similar cases we shall find
»it convenient to appropriate a place in «ome large and <listinctive class for the kind of ^lower which enables us to produce commodities be- longing to tliP other classes. Now we shall find that the making of these machines and tools ge- nerally resolves itself into a department of ' manufactures in metal,' and tliat, generally speaking, it is a manufacture pertaining to the northern and midland districts of England rather than to London, although many large establishments of the kind ciist in and around the metropolis. Stenin- engines for manufacturing purposes arc in our own day roost largely produced, involving arrangements and apparatus of B gigantic kind.-. The machinist and the millwright in like manner now consume vast quantities of iron and steel in the fabrication of the
I mTBODUCTIOK.
uneroo* niKhbM wliidi •re in Uicir inru to b«eoine jwodneenu Tb» rcunwUuc« of Uie cottnn niBiiufBrtiiri- liavinn li««c>me to firmly seated in LftncMhirnhuptrrtcfl npnw<^rfol iiiflunM.-F on lli« wttlvnart if mochuiiau, mUlwrighu, ami mgineen in thai quarter ; irttwrwiM, tondon would perhap* ttill liavn malnumnl k |ire-nninenc« ia ifacaa Icpulnieiits.
' mARhtn«-niKk«r ' la not, u a timpl« ileii|tiMtioii, lulficLHtt to «x- jAnia tlie avucatiun of a manufacturer ( f xvp|it perliapa al Man^cMar, mheir [Miwer-looiuB and ■[unning machinery laka tlie precvdeae* of •very tlibig eUe in rMpccl of niacliinm. In I^ondun, for inM«nc«, lb* ■DftDufiMurere who produi^e a printing -macbine may never haw naAm • e-en|jinc, or a b«er'«ngiiie, ur a mangle ; nor could tli« makers of these produce the furmnr, without introducing entirely new arrai>f^ nents into their ciitabli«hnicnta.
'i1ie manufacturee in metal arc, it may lie nhierved, carried on in London gnnerally on a smaller and mure divided scale than in iLe north, eapoutally thiwe wliich relate (o iron aiul stcol. Vicinity to the coal dialricl* affords a mode of accounting for tliia cirrum«taiice. Copper ie Worked largely in London, and w in lead; Iwlli mclaU arc »d malleable and ductile, that a larger proportion of tlic manufacturing procfMMi can be effected without hPHttlian in ihecaee of iron. The «hcct-lead for wofe and Inrracee, leud tubea for water- pi jjce, copper vewoli for brew- niR, diBlUling, tugar-rerming, steam -boil era, 4c., are all maiiufacWred ciinsiderabU extent in tlie metropolis. The mixed metaU, such aa braas, gun-mpul, bell-mrlal, and fusible meUl, are all worked up into useful fornij bere, but generally in establ ill. menu of no great eslent. When we come lo notice agricultural machines and implement*, tools for carpenters and artisan* generally, aud otlier mechanical aids wliich give increaaed power to manual labour without the aid of steam wo shall probably find that there are but few lo wUch Sheffield 'a«d other town* of the north have not contribute.!. The tooi-mak^™ and niaehinisu of London have such facilities i
n obuining supplie
I caans tlie L>midon work c
from the midland eountiea, that
»«. m.i„i, i„ p„,.i„g u,g,.i,„ v„i„„. ,i„„~or»;"urti;;;;i;;;;;;
tor, Th, ..w.,lh, n«W th. .„„., ,k, ,„^i„,^^, ~
from tl,. „„r,S. g,„„.l|, ,„ . ™gi „.,^^ _^^, ^^ ^^^^^ ^.^.^^^
from lli« t
nnd itdaptffij by the workmen in Loudon Of ik entlery, r.,o.t of tho bully m«l comtt lunj, , '
IKTnODUCTfON. I a
Idlflriclai bat rinR cutlpry i« prod«e«d hi Itaaioa, altltongli not in lug*
Aa we httve included ve»»rU among the meuu of faHlilatiu|[ numi- linctures, we may hriefl; mnuk tfatf dwMe of wood m llie fnodsee ■.generally of itnoll iraiiubcturen,— lfa« wocMlen v«ta for brewgra being ■i^rhspa tliott wliicli rwjuire (be lorgeat tatumbtxuruifi tmngcniani. V Tia culinar; vcobcU arc aUo prodimd in oonaiilenilble Bnmber m robur t-MtabluhmcDta. Brown-atonv wvc or enorve ca/thenworc rnxtlt or* ■ made Mmewbot vxtciwivolj id Lambeth; bniSUffonUiira ami Drrhj- p are the dwtriciii lo which we ue accBoIiMnad to iworiat* trrrrj
r departnlCTil of the |NrUery OiaDufoclure.
Whoever were lo atlempl to ctaMir<r oD th« trade* and occupi of London, and were to connill a directory with a new to in their number, would perhapa be xmiewhal aUrtled to find It m ^^
aonirthing like thirtetm or fourtwn btmini, and would admit that nqr ctoMificBtion •}! tbem under fin or lix huadlnp muM oecaiTily be verj iinpcrfeet It ib ivM pretended that the arrai^entRrt given in the preceding |>*g** •• aDftfafaig more than an apprasimaie aid, or tiMt we have g;lanc«d at more tliaa the diier tn each cIm* ; bat It majr perfaapa hare been •faown that, nonteroiu a* are tbe Lottdon trwto, the nninber which involve brge tttlorj ansngemento, and arc dumttUf iitie of LoadoR, ii not oo coniidenbte a* waold at firit appear.
In the following pagea an attempt t« made lo convey ■otne Idea nf the general cbaraeter of • few of our l^iafiaa manalactBrea, b the ibrm of 'vinta' to certain apectfied eotaUirfiraeMa, the genersl ajrangement and internal ttxmaaf of wMA art deocribed, m a meoaa of iUostrating mote diitinctlj the MMfartBring detailo. The depart- nuMi of mannfiKtBre oetected are oocb a«, in awit caMi, pertain la liwndnn rathtf than to the ctmKrj, tati an andmoM OB a oeale oaS- cicfldy large to Inndve MMBCilnBg like ' betory ' amngeraeBlf. The gCBcnl character of the proeeaae* ia aketebaJ, in a ftnn wUd) doea not noB at the completawaa and leehnkal minaliniwnf a Cydapadja or ptweticol tmti*e, bat wUA, h I* faopad. vfll com ey iBbrtnation to thooe who, akboogb not engaged in ihmm laawfatnirw^ wvnld like to knww by whont. Hid from whence, and in what nomicr, the bun- liarly known commndhia of life ore prodoead.
The neaae of eAecttng Ihii wooU ha«« been wonting bad not the pmprietan d the reepectiva raloblMiineBie tiberaiiy ofMed faeititiw fa- injecting the procMoea of nanvbeinw, nd taking dmrtaga to
16
INTRODUCTION.
1^
illuftrate them. Those gentlemen will, perhape, at the outset, accept the best thanks of all concerned in the production of this volume for their courtesy.
[The greater number of these articles have appeared in * The Pennj Magazine ;' but so general a wish has been expressed for their re- publication in a separate form, that, the author having carefully revised them, they are now given in a compact shajie, forming an acceptable volume for young persons especially. The original papers have been extensively used in the higher classes of schools, amongst others in the Engineering class of King's College.]
J
h
A DAY AT A BREWERY.
i dwellerg in and visitors to the ' Great MetropoIiB ' who croM Southwark Bridge from the City to the Borougli can scarcely fail to hnve observed the array of tall ehimneyB which meets the eye on either side of its Eouthero extremity ; each one serving us a kind of beacon or guide-post to some large manufacturing establishment be- neath— here a brewery, iliere a saw-mill, farther on a h«t factory, a distillery, a vinegar factory, and numerous others. Indeed, Soutliwark b as distinguishable at a distance for its numerous tall chimneys and Ae clouds of smoke emitted by them, as London is for its lliickly -con- gregated <;huTch-Bpires. Let the reader, when next tin the bridge, tingle out from among these chimneys one more bulky, though not more lofty, than the rest ; and this will point out the spot where one of those gigantic establishments — a London Brewery — is titunicd ; eatablishmenta which, whether we regard the extent of the huiUluiga comprising them, the amount of invested capital by which they ure maintained, or the systematic arrangenjents by which the daily opera- tions are conducted, rank among the first in the kingdom^ or indeed in the world. Without entering into the chemical niceties which arc involved in the process of brewing, or into a history of beer and malt liquors generally, we hope ta convey to the reader some idea of tlie astonishing magnitude of the arrangements and the labour by which ii •pint of porter' is produced.
On crossing Southwark Bridge to tlie Surrey side of the water, the Bridge-road passes over a narrow street ninning parallel with the river, to which we descend by a flight of stone steps ; and on looking oast- ward along this street, we observe large ranges of buildings on either ■ide, connected by a covered bridge or passnge tliirty feet from the ground. Theae piles of buildings form parts of tlie brewery of Messrs. Barclay and Perkins ; and on approaching the end of the right-hand range, vte arrive at another street leading southward, both sides <if which are in like manner occupied by the brewery buildiiigs, extending t« a distance of several hundred feet. Proceeding southward along
18 DAYS AT THE FACTORIES.
this street, we paw under a light and elegant stupenaion-bridge, bjr which communication ia eatabliahed between the opposite aidea ; and beyond thia we arrive at the entrance to the hrewerj, within which are two or three open yarda or squarea, surrounded by buildings of vaat est«nt. The engraving represents some of the principal buildinga of the brewery, together with the suspension -bridge, taken from a apot nearly opposite the principal entrance. The entrsnce gate is large and elegant, and fronting it ia a building appropriated aa officea and counting-houaea, where thirty or forty clerka are employed.
Nearly in the middle of the premises is a building, called the * tun- room,' in which some of the proceases connected with the brewing are conducted ; and from the leaded roof of this building we obtain a panoramic view of nearly all the various parts of the brewery. Towards the north~eaat, on the river side, is a wharf, from whence beer ia ahipped for exportation ; to the north are two large ranges of malt- warehouaea, separated by the street first alluded to, and connected by the covered bridge; westward is an open court, containing at varioua potnts in its circuit an engine-house with all the steam-engine ap- paratus, two water- reservoirs for the supply of the establishment, a cooperage, a building where casks are cleansed, sheds for containing empty casks, and various other buildings : southward is a most extett- •ive range of storehouses, where the beer is kept in vats ; and beyond these is a range of stables for the dray-horses : to the south-«aat is the fining-house and some of the storehouses ; and, lastly, eastward are the porter and ale brewhouaes, connected by the suspension -bridge pass- ing over a street below. Such are the extensive ranges of buildinga visible from the elevated roof of the 'tun-room ;' the whole covering K space of ground eight or nine acres in area, and from a quarter to a third of a mile in circuit.
The purpoeea to which these several buildings are applied will per- haps best be understood by following the processes in the order actually observed in the brewery ; by tracing the water, malt, and hops through their successive changes, as far at least aa may be done without dis- cussing the scientific details of the processes.
The water used for brewing is that of the river Thames, pumped up by mean* of a steam-engine through a large iron main ; the main passing under the malt-warehouses, and leading to the reservoirs in the open court of the brewery. The appellation given to these cisterns reminds as of the fact that every manufacture has its peculiar phrase-
I
I
A DAY AT A IIUKWERV. lU
ology, not easily miderstoml \>y strangers ; fur when wp liear mention made of the ' liijuor-baek,' it requinw Borac exp1&n»lion to show ihut this is but anullier n&mu for ' wELter-rpeervoir ;' water, in llie language of the hrewhouse, beinj[ 'liquor.' and a cistern or reservoir a. ' hock.' Into these ci«temB, ihen, the wnter ix conveycil ; and we have eeldout Been a etut-iron structure present a finer combination of slrengtli with elegance. Fifteen iron columns, each nearly lutlf a yard in diameter, are ranged in three ri>w« of five each ; and on the top of tbew; columns is the lower cistern, a cast-iron vessel about tlitrty'two feet lung by twenty wide, and eevernl feet deep. From this cistern rise the supporu by which a second one, about the same size as the former, is upheld ; and a light staircase leads up from the ground to Uie upper cistern. The whole atructure, reaching an elevation of probably forty feet, it made of caat-iron.
By these means, then, the establishment is supplied with a reservoir of water for brewing, the water (lowing into the various vessels from the cisterns by the usual kinds of apparatus ; and llie importanee of these arrangements may be judged from the fact that a hundred thou- sand gallons of water, on an average, are required for the services of the brewery every day. Tliere is a well nn the premises, not far from the cisterns ; but the vrater obtained thence is employed principally, on account of its low temperature, to aid tlie cuoting of the beer in hot weather.
All the pumps by which the water is conveyed &om the Thames to tlie cisterns and from the ciatems to the brewing-veaaelB, as well as various machinery tiaed in the brewbouse, are worked by n steam- engine situated near the water cisterns. 'I'hcre are two eiigineij ; one of forty-five and the other of thirty horse-power, used together or ■eporate according to the extent of operations at different times. Tlie construction of these engines, and the mcxie in which power is com- municated from them to various purts of the cstablisbment, resemble those generally oiwerved in Urge factories, and need not claim par- ticular notice here.
A visitor's attention may next he directed to the mall, and the means by which it is conveyed to the brewing buildings. On looking from the great brewhouse towards tlie river ho will probably he struck with tlie appearance of a string of stui-dy porters, each carrying a large sack on his back from a barge at the river-side to Uie malt -warehouses. TbcM men follow each other pretty closely, each one bringing his sack
30
DAV8 AT THE FACT0H1BS,
of inalt, woif;l)infr Hbotit nnF. «ntl n hdf ImiidrHl weight, from thft tMfg«, depositing the cunleiiU in the wiirrho(i»<>«, and rrttimirif; to tb« hargv with the rmpty uncle. If the nifLll-warphoujM extrnilnd to th» riv«r, ttiplMgs or quarter* of mdt wnuli) prnlxihly tw- hauled up hj r-ntnc and pulley from ihc hargp lying limifath ; hut prPtntira tinoonnpclwi with the brewery iiitervene, and conB*queiilIy Uie wrvjcei of tliMe mall- portcra artr ncccsaary. Earh ninn rarrie* hij bag uf malt into the warv- house, up Beveral flights of sUiim, and rmplies the contrnts into one of a teries of enormous bins or boxes. Thmr bins, which arc about two dozen in nuinher, are of such extraordinary [liinenaioiis, eipecially in height, that wc may aay, without oxaggeration, that an ordinary thr<ie- uoried houae, — roof, chimney*, and all, — might be contained and iihut up in one of thsm. Tliey are formed entirely of wood, and are snp- plicd with malt till full ; the earlier portimis of the aupply hcing in- troduced at a door half-way up the bin, aftorwaril* closrd up.
Aa the northern mall-warchoURp w separated by a street from the brewery buildings, the mall originally deposited there u, when wanted.
p
A DAY AT A BREWKRY. 31
conveyed from the north to the south WHrcbouee by an ftrrangement of a very curious kind. At the lower pari of ihe front of each malt-biu u a little sliding door, eight or ten inches wide and rnlhcr more in height, which, when slid upwards, allows the malt to rush out with great quick- ness; and at these doors another set of malt-porters, such as axe re- presented in the cut in page 20, sre employed whenever the malt is to be transferred from the north to the south warehoiue. Each man brings a basket covered with leather, aiid capkhle of holding about two bushels, to a shelf or stage beneath the sliding door; opens the latter; fills hia basket with malt; takes it on his bsck by means of a strap held in the hand, and carries it to a large funnel or ' hopper," into which he empties the malt. In this manner each man will frequently carry four hundred loads in a day, of two bushels each, from the bine to the funnel ; and ea all the men deposit their loads of malt in the same funnel, it is natural to look to this as the immediate channel of com- mmiication. Dipping hito this fiuinol is an apparatus called, in the language of the brewery, a * Jacob's ladder,' consisting of an endleia leather band, passing round rollers at the top and hoiiora, and carrying a series of tin buckets, each capable of holding about two quarts. Aa the hand travels vertically up and down, each bucket in turn dips into the malt, becomes filled, travels upwards to the tiip of the building, and empties its contents upon a canvas cloth ; the buckets arc thus, in fact, substitutes for porters, each one in turn conveying its two quarts of malt up to the top of the building.
The cloth on which the malt is emptied is stretched across the street from the north to the south malt-warehouse ; and, to understand its action, we most beg the reader (claiming pardon for the homeliness of the simile) to imagine a jack-towel passing horixontally across the street, and stretched over rollers at the two ends. Each little bucket pours its contents on the upper stage of this towel or cloth, which is called a ' carrier ;' and the deposited heaps travel from the north to the south warehouses, the lower stage of the cloth at the same time return- ing empty in the opposite direction. The covered passage containing this cloth or ' carrier' is that which meets the eye whon looking east- ward Iiom the South work -bridge Road ; and it was by this passage that we crossed from the north to the south malt-wnrehoufle.
thus traced the malt in its progress from one warehouse to the other, we nest watched its preparation for the brewing processes. Tile malt which hod been originally deposited in the bins of the south-
DAYS AT THE FACTORIKS.
ern varehouHe, m well m thnt which is brought from the nortborn, is emptied into one common funnel or 'hopper;' the former being brought in baakets by another sel of mult-men from the bins, and the latter flowing down a pipe from the endless 'carrier* cloth. From this funnel the malt descends through a pipe into a lower receptftcle in the mill or grindiiig-room, and ia taken up by a second "Jacob's ladder' ta D hopper, or receptacle in the upper part of the mill-room, from which it descends into one or other of the grinding (or, rather, crushing) machines represented in the subjoined cut. Each of these machines
contains a pair of steel rollers rotating nearly in contact, by passing between which the malt becomes crushed into the state called grift. This grist may have any degree of fineness suitable for the kind of malt-liquor to be produced, by regulating the distance between the
A third 'Jacob's ladder,' much larger than either of the others, carrieB the grist from the grind ing-room to a height of sixty or seventy feet in the middle of the great brewhouse and near its roof;
A DAY AT A HREWERY.
^^Ktere ihe grist is deposited in varioui dtuineU, of whicli we eliAll lutve ^^B)S[>eak presently. Tlie stages or UtyEre of these 'Jacob'* IftJdera.' ^^B, HtUer, the aacemling and ilescending liuliler, arc eacli encloaed in ^^^Biroii trunk or cue extending the whole length ; iho ucending ladder luiving thh- buckeU full, wbile those of the descending ladder ore empty. The subjoined cut ibows the appcarnnce of two of the buekel*
ttirough an open door in the iron cnee. The backets and the Hs leather bund to which they are attached are act in motion ij machinery connected with one or botli of the rollers at the endi of the ladder; and when we state that these backets raise up. on erage of the whole year, more than two tliousand two hundred ■lers of malt per week (for tbia is the ([nantity required for the ery), it will be allowed that this ' Jiicoh's ladder' is a moH indws-
Of the great brewbouse itself, to which we have now arrived, it is no easy task to give a description. Tlie first effect on the mind of ft ttnuiger is a state of bewUilerment, which is not removed till matters arc viewed a little more in detail. The dimensions of the room arc so ng utensils reach to such a height, and the pumps, pipes, er apparatus ore so thickly arrangnd on every sid*.
H DAYS AT TRC rACTOBIIS.
tW imlflM we follow the actiul brewing proceMet in tbeir regnbr order, the whole usembUge, to the mind of a viaitor, becomei k dwh of confiuion.
In the firft place the reader miut imagine a room nearijr equalling We*tniiniter Hall in magnitude, built entirely of iron and brick, and uninterrupted hj diatinct floors or partitions, so m to be open from the ground to the roof, except where atages and platforms occur in varioiu part« and at varioua heights. The room is lighted bj eight lof^ windows on the east side ; and all round the walls just betow the roof are openings for the exit of steam. The principal part of the room is occupied \>j ten enormous piles of brewing vessels, reaching from the ground to a great height. Without troubling ourselves with de- tailed measurements, it will be sufficient to state the average diameters of all these vessel* at about twenty feet ; and the arrangement of them is as follows : — The piles of vessels are ranged in two rows of five each, occupying the greater part of the length of the room, parallel with the windows. Thoae nearest to the windows consist of a square iron vessel called an ' onder-back* (i. e. lower cistern), near the ground ; above this a circular vessel called the ' mash-tun ;' above this again a square wooden box called a ' malt-case ;' and, highest of all, a pipe to convey malt into this case. Each one of the set farthest removed from the windows consists, near the bottom, of a large furnace; above this, a copper-boiler enclosed in brick-work, and capable of holding nearly twelve thousand gallon* ; above this again, a vessel called a ' copper- pan ;' and at the top a ' copper-back,' for receiving the wort previous to it* being boiled with the hops. These ten piles of ve**el»,a* before stated, occupy the chief part of the brewhouae ; but there ia also, near each end, a very capacious square vessel, called a 'hop-back,' or 'jack- back.' The pumps, pipes, iron platforms, iron flights of stairs, Ac. are very numerous, and distributed in various parts of the building ; but they are altogether subsidiary to the large pile* of vessels just alluded to.
Let us now see how Au- it may be practicable to explain, in a brief manner, the purposes to which these huge vessels are applied. To aid the description, we give a sectional representation of the principal vessels and working apparatus. The reader is supposed to be looking southward, with the windows on the left hand, and to have before him a vertical section of all the vessels in one of each of the live pairs alluded to above, together with the long ' Jacob's ladder,' and the malt-
A DAY AT A BRBWERV.
crushing apparatus in die building In the right of Uie grew brewhimsi?. ~ lott of liie vessels and apparatua bave the names atuched, whereby
lh« mder, hj ocouiuiwl reference to the ruI, can follrm the roudiM | uf proremea.
To begin at the bcginiun^. let us suppose tiie fiirniice-fir« to b* lightol. The door of ench furnace u oppoBite the wealem wall of huildiug ; and & piuMBgc leads alung the tides of the fumacM, with runiocr-doora on llie one hmi'l, and largr rrlUrs or receptacle* fofj coals on the othpr, one in front of each of the 5ve furnaces. ThsM:] cgIUtb are auppHMwiih coals in a very Ingenious manner. The coal^. when brought to the brewery, nnr placed in a coal-yard or cimrt, frnm thenre are conveyed to another receptacle within tlie hrewhrniM.. Here a hoi, capable of holding about two saoLs, ih filled with coals,' drawn up by means of tackle, placed Upon a very ingenioua nulway situated between the wall and the funiartw, pnratlel to both, and wlicfllfld along till it comra over any one of the five coa1-colUr«, wbrrs it IB oniptied. The coals required for th« brewery, about twenty tons per duy, are thus conveyed o^ipoaite to the doom of all the Ainiacea with great eiuB. Tlio form of each furnace, and the details of ita nrrangement, do not require pnrticulaf notice; but it is worthy of reinurk, that the smoke from all the Airnacen enters one lar^ «iiliter> raneous flue, which conducts it to a ehimney situated in the open court, detached from every other building. ' Thin chimney is a line specimen of brickwork, rising to a lieight of a hundred and twenty feet, and being, fVom its bulky area, a conspicuous object from th« bridge.
The coppers, which are immediately over the furnacet, are em- ployed in the firit place to heat water for extracliug the xaceharine matter from the malt, and afterwanU to boil the malt-extract thus obt«ino<l. Tlie water is brought from the large reservoirs in the open court, through pipes, to the ' copper-jtan' and also tu the cop])er; and at certain limes and in certain quantity is allowed to flow into the cop- per, where it gradually acquires the temperature proper for the proci'ss of * mashing,' or that by which the extract is obtained from the mult.
All kinds of malt liquor may be shortly characterised as being extnicte of malt, boiled with or without hoj«. and then fermented ; so that the main procufaea are those of extracting, or 'mashing,' boiling, and fermenting. l"he water in the copper is for the first of these processes; and wlule it is gradually heming, the malt is being conveyed to the ' mash- Wa have before atatcd, tliat ths crustied malt, or 'grist,' is conveyed.
A DAY AT A BBBWBaV. »
hy a long * Juofa'i Udder,' nearly to tbo top of the brewhoiiM. Hen the buckets depocit their contents into a nnall venel, trom which five i^pes nunify, each pipe leading to one of the ' malt-cases.' The top of each pipe has k kiod of iliding door or portcullis dnwn acroM it, bj the nianagement of which the grist may be made to descend whichever of the pipe* may be desired. The malt-case is merely a receptacle to hold aofficient malt for one mashing, until lucb time as that process i« to be conducted ; and when this time arrives, four valves are opened in the bottom of the malt-case, whereby the malt speedily falls into the ' masb- tun.' This last-named vestel is circular, and is provided with a double bottom, the upper one of which is pierced with very amall boles : the space between the two bottoms is pieced in commtmication with the copper by mean* of « pipe, and a few large holes, closed with plugs ot taps, occur in the lower or true bottom.
This being the amuigement, and the mash-tun being supplied with malt, a proper quantity of water is allowed to flow from the copper to the space between the two bottoms of the tun ; and, percolating up- . wards through the small holes, it mixes with the malt. The malt and the water are then stirred about by means of a maahing-nuchine set in rotation by the eteam-engiiie ; and after this has continued for a certain length of time, the water, which now contains a large proportion of malt-extract, is allowed to flow from the tun into the square 'under- back,' the taps in the bottom being turned on for this purpose, and the holes in the false bottom being too small to allow any of the malt to pasB. The liquor thus produced is called ' wort.'
A pump is next broug^ into requisition, to pump the wort from the * under-back' into the copper. He/e, for the first time, onr atten- tion is directed to the hops. Host persons are aware tfaat it is the flower of the hop-plant which goes by the geneml name of ' hops,' and that this imparts a peculiar bitter, without which beer would not be recognised as such. The hop-&owen are pressed into large canvas bags, and in that state arc craiveyed to the brewery, where they aro Tanged in large warelMmaes near the brewhoose till wanted. The bags are hauled up into the brewhonse, conveyed to the upper part of the copper, and the bops thrown in atadoor in the copper called the' man- bole' (this being the hole at which the men go in to clean the copper after each brewing). The wort and the bops are then boiled together, nittii the flavour of the latter is sufficiently imparted to the former, th« hop* being eonstantlj stirred by a rotating macbiiM called a ' louaer.*
c 2
K DAYS AT TUB FACTORIES.
The boiled wort next descends, through a shoot or trunk, from the boUer to a verj large square vessel, called a ' hap-back' (almost hidden behind the mash-tun in our section). As the hops as well as the liquid descend through the shoot, the hop-hack is provided with a perforated false bottom, through which the wort flows, leaving the hops above the perforation. The capacity of this veuel cannot be lees than four thousand cubic feet ; and when filled with boiling wort and hopa, the clouds of steam rising from the open surface are, as maj easily be ima- gined, moat profuse.
The wort is pumped from the hop-back into ' coolers ;' but before we follow it in this process, it may be desirable to say a few more words respecting the great brewhouse. Three of the coppers and three of the ma«h;tun8, with the accompttnying vesaela, are employed for the brewing of porter, while the others are for ale : one hop-back, too, is for porter, and the other for ale. The fermentable matter obtained from the malt is not all extracted at one time ; and, therefore, the 'grist' is covered with hot water two or three times, the extract or tnlusion each time being called a * mash.' The hops, in like manner, do not lose all their valuable qualities by once boiling, and are, there- fore, used again, in fresh portions of boiling wort In order to convey the drained hops back again to the copper, a number of men strip off their upper garments, and get into the hop-back, where they shovel the wet hops, still scalding hot, into a tub or bucket, which is drawn up, wheeled along a stage, and emptied into the coppers. This opera- tion has rather an extraordinary appearance, for the men are enveloped in steam, and are moreover liable to severe injury if any of the hot wet hops touch the upper and unclothed parts of their bodies. The hopa from the porter-brewing are re-conveyed to the coppers in this way ; but those from the ale-brewing are carried up by a ' Jacob's ladder,' which dips at the lower end into the hop-hack, and empties the hops into the boiler at the top. When the malt and the hops are thoroughly spent, they are thrown into the street, and thence carted away, the one under the name of ' grains,' to be used as food for cattle and swino, and the other as manure.
Adjoining the western side of the brewhouse are large ranges of buildings, through which the wort passes in the subsequent processes. "Die first process necessary after draining from the hops is a rapid cool- ing, which is effected in a manner softicwhat striking to a stranger. At the upper part of a lofty building are two spacious cooling-floors.
« hoi oci
A DAY AT A BRKWKRV. 39
Lher ; Uie siJes of the roonie being open for the frre ac-
Each floor is of iniroenBe extent, perfectly level, and jier-
^tly clean, and cxposea a Kurface of not It^as than ten thousand equore
The floor is dividM into compartmenta by raiaed ledges a few
•a in height, and into the compiirtments thus formed llie hot hc^r
ort is imtnped from the hop-back. The surface of the slrnluni tif
being so very large in proportion to the depth, the air wliit-h la
wafted over it from the open aides of the room cooU tlie beer iji a
short space of time. In some particnlar states of the weiilher, when
the heer is not cooled with sufficient rapidity by these menns, it is
Ipoased through a refrigerator, in wliich it b brought into cJose coniiec- lion with cold spring water, thus effecting a rapid ivduction of tern- oeraturp. Our vbit next led us into that part of the building where ihc process of fermentation is carried on. The cold beer v wort is allowed to flow into four enormoussquarefermentingvesBelslechnically called 'Bijuares;' and in these wooden vessels, one of whicb will hold fifteen hundreil barrels of beer, the li^uid is fermented with yeast for a certain space of s. On ascending a ladder to look itito nnenf these square-s, a visitor only remarks the singular appearance of the thick masses of yenst iCovering the surface of the beer, but soon becomes sensible of the suf- ating fumes of the gas emanating from tt and hovering in a kind of the surface.
itine of operations next takes us to a •paciotu room called the * tun-room,' in the lower part of a building, of which the middle Btory is occupied as hop-lofts and the upper as the coolers just alluded to. This tun-room contains nearly three hundred cylindrical vessels, ranged with great regularity in about twenty rows of fifteen in a row. each vessel holding upwards of three hundred gallons. Tliese vessels are called ' rounds,' and pipes and cocks are so arranged at the butlom of each as lo allow them to be filled with beer from the fermenting squares, at a certain stage in the process. Between the rows of vessels are long troughs, into whicb the yeast, worked off by the beer tlirough « hole in the top of each veBsel, is (inducted along a sloping shoot or inel, a mode of arrangement represented in the next cut. Tliis I'oceas of working off the yeaat is called ' cleansing,' and is important the future quality of the beer; and although it is a process some- dirty and unpleasant in small or domestic breweries, yet here all is clenn, regular, and orderly : indeed thia it not the only proof which
DAYS AT THR FACTORIBS.
mich an cflabliBhiricnt afforci* l.hni the largr cxti-nt <>t thp operntinn* i* iL' vrry circumDtaiiL-i> wljidi leail* to c|p«nly and orilprly arrange- ment, from the nlmolute nccouity of ec-unouiUing room and lime.
Sunk ill the flonr of tlto tun-rucim, IwnrBth tlie ' ruundi,' a an ob' long Uuik, linod thmughoiit with white Dutch tilc«, utd intended for die occuional rdcoption of b«er. This tank would float a hargc of no mean aiz«, being about a bundred feet In lengtli and twenty in breadth.
On proceeding weitwanl ihmagh the brewery from tlie main Milrancc, all the building* which wo havo yet described are sitnatcd at till) right liand ; bnt we have now to criist In the suutlicrn range, separated from ilio otlipr by an nveuue, over which a large pipe erosBpg to convey the beer from tlie ' riiunds ' to the «ore-vat*. These VBt« are contained in a eoncs of ttore-ronms, apparently almuat interminable : indeed all tliat we have hitherto aaid ne tii vastnets 'u much cice«d«il by the array which here nieeta tlie eye. On entering ibe store-build- ttigs, we were struck with tile alienee which reigned throughout, «o
I
A DAT AT A BRBWBRY. 31
difierent from'Qte biutle of the manufacturing departments. Ranges of buildings, branching oat norih, MUth, ea«t, and west, are crammed as full of vats as the circular form of Uie vevela wilt permit; some larger than others, but ill of such dimensions as to baffle one's common notions of 'great' and 'small.' Sometimes, walking on the earthen floor, we pass immediately under the ranges of rats (for none of them rest on the ground), and may then be said to have a stratum of beer twenty or thirty feet in thickneHS over our heads: at another, we walk on a platform level with the bottom of the vats ; or, by ascending steep ladders, we mount to the top, and obtain a kind of bird's-eye view of these mighty monstera. Without a guide, it would be impossible to tell which way we are trending, through the labyrinth of buildings and lofts, surrounded on all sides by vats. At one small window we catch a glimpse of a churchyard, close under the wall of the storehouse ; and, on further examination, we find that the buildings belonging to the brewery, principally the store-rooms, hare gradually hut completely enclosed a small antique-looking churchyard, or ratlier burial-gvound (for it does not belong to any parochial cbordi). Id this spot many of the old hands belonging to the establishment have found their last resting-place, literally surrounded by the buildings in which they were employed when living.
The apace occupied as store-rooms may in some measure be judged, when we state that there are one hundred and fifty vats, the average capacity of each of which, large and small together, is upwards of thirty thousand gallo'ns. The town of Heidelberg, in Germany, baa gained a sort of celebrity for possessing a tun of vast dimensions, capable of holding seven hundred hogsheads of wine ; but there are several vata among those here mentioned, in each of which the Heidelberg tun would have "ample room and verge enough" to swim about. Fig. 7 is a sketch of one of the largest vata, which contains about three thousand barrels, of thirty-six gallons each, and weighs, when full of porter, about Ave hundred tons !
Leaving this array of vats — these silent giants of the brewery — we next visited the ale department, of which little has yet been saidl The distinction between ale and beer is well known by the taste, but is not easily described in words : ale is of greater specific gravity, lighter coloured, more transparent, and less bitter than porter. Whether or not we assent to the dictum of Autolycua, in the ' Winter's Talc,' that a "qtiart of ale is a dish for a king," it is certain that a malt liquor
DAYS AT THB rACTORlBS.
more ur Iph reapinbliTig the ftle of itiiiiJem luiiea vra» much i Among o\u furcfttxheri ci-'nturie* agti.
U vftu mvntiuned in a former poregrnph, thai, two out of the five aeta of brewing vrwflii are employed for tlie browing of ule. THmc two are at the nortJiprn end of t)ie brewhoiuo, aiul nre uaeil nearly Mine way m the portrr vessels. The water is cotiveyeii from the cb- tem to the copper, and there heated ; tite crushed malt is introduced) first into the nialt-case, and then into the niuh-tun ; hot water is allowed to tlow lo thia malt from the hiiiler ; the mushing procesa rullows, and ihe wort, when drained off from the mall into the imder-back, is pumped iiitu the boiler ; the hop* are introduced and boiled with the wort ; and, Inslly, the whole ccmtenln of tlie copper flow into the hop-back, where the wort ia itrained from the hops. All this nearly resembles tlie pruceas followed in porter-brewing ; but the hot ale-wort travels by a very different roule. Wo bave alluded to an elegant iron sua- pe nil ion- bridge, which paases over a Hired from iho great brcwhouae to
i i
r_J*
A DAY AT A BRKWERY.
33
li
K building termed the " Ale-lirewerjr." Along the bottom or floor of this bridge are laid three pipes, one to convey gaa for lighting the alc- brcwery, another for cold water from the cistrma, and h third for con- veying tJie hot ale from the hop-hark I" tJie coolerB in the ale depart- ment. This latter Btructure, nearly fire-proof, is built with much eleganre, and consists of the necessary rooms for the completion of thf ale-brewing. The hot ale-wort, passing from the hop-back over rhc: suspension-bridge, ia conveyed to the top of the ale-brewery, where il L b spread out on two cooling- floors, separated, like those in the porter- "brewery, into compartments by means of raised ledges, and. like them also, exposed to the free acceea of air on all sides. The cooling being effected by exposure on these flours, and aflerwards by passing through a refrigerator, the ale-wort descends to tlie story containing the fer- menting vessels, which is on a level with the suspension -bridge ; and s vessels, some square and others round, the wort fer- s the state of ale. Again descending, die ale enters ' to undergo the process of cleansing. About threi- ■ lnindre<l and fifty cylindrical casks, or 'rounds,' each containing abotii a hundred and fifty gallons, are ranged in great order throiigliout this large room ; and here the nle remains till in a fit state to be vatled. Once again descending, we arrive at the level of the street, where, passing through a dark spacious store-room, we see immediately overhead an un- interrupted range of vats, into which the nle flows from the 'rounils.'
The water conveyed over the suspension -bridge i» deposited irj a cistern at the lop of the ale-brewery, and from iheiice flows lo the various stories as required. Adjoining thr southern end of this build- ing are large ranges of storehouses occupied by ale-vnts.
KWe now again cross to the principal range of buildings, and offer few remarks descriptive of llie mode of filling the butts with beer. be butts in which the beer is conveyed to the publicans, and whicli e BO well known in the streets of London, contain one hundred and jht gallons each. A hose, similar in form to those which are lached to fire-engines, is connected at one end to a hole in one the vats, and at the other to the bung-hole of the butt, the latter jng placed on the ground with that hole uppermost. Then, by meBr:S of a lap or valve governed by a handle, the beer is made to flow from the vat, through the hose, to the butt or barrel; and wlien one " 1 this way filled, the end of the hose is quickly transferred the hole of a second butt, which is filled in a similar maimer.
34 DAYS AT "HIK rACTORIKS.
Fig. B rcpniwMiU a man ennagocl in thia proccM of 'drawing off.' which U nffrcled in cclliirt nn ihe levui of tlie gnwA, of whicli ihtn ,
«* •cvenl. Some of the itorc-vnt» arc rangod round those rHlara;! wliile r.tin«i> which u-if iii a greater distance are placed in connwUun % with the cellar* by pipr* and hoie.
Moat pprsons pnrliapB are aware that mnlt liqtinrR, afler firmentn- I tion, require a jiroceM called 'filling,' t" render iljeiii more cleftr and I iranRptrent. Thit liquid with whit^ thi« i« effcctcil is niade at brewery ; and on viaiting the building where tlii; nuuiufaclure lakes place, we found that, »niaU ns ii the ({uantity rmiuired for each liutt of hcer, the proceM is conducted on n cnnaiderahle scale. The huilding is at the litft hand of the principal entrance to the brewery, and ccnv- eisU i)f three or four stories or tiers, each filled with square vessels, in ; which the fining liquid (a solution of isinglnu and other analogous sub- stances) is prepared. A very small quantity of this liquid iti use every butt of beer.
K
A OAV AT A DREWBRV. i-'-
Weflward of ihe main bodyofibe brewery buildings is s large pnvml looking ftcross wbich towards the north-west, we evpinl such an of butu, puncheons, lind bnrreU u Mtciled no small surprisn. were not filled willi beer or «le, but had been brought empty ftwm the cellBTS of the publicans, to be repaired and cleansed Iwfore again using. One of the undeviating rule* in theae e»tab!iahment«, — the goIdcD rule, indeed,- — is to observe the greatest eleniiliuess in every part of tbe processes ; nearly every vessel, targe and tnudl, however frequently it may be emptied and filled, and in wbatevrr part of the operntions it may be employed, is cleaused ader each lime of \mt\K acconling to the nature or condilioii of tlie liquid contained iu (if vessel, 80 is there a particular mode of cleansing adopted. Tbe butlc in which the l>eer is conveyr^d from the estahlisbment arc especially attended to in this respect. A cbininey at the we«l end of the yard ^ints out llie spot where the cleansing or stearuing house is situated, hich llie process is conducted in an ingenioua manner. Thr barrels to be clesjtsed are ranged, n certain number at a time, ind tlie sides of the building, immediately over a horizontal pipe inlAining atoam from an adjacent boiler ; and from this pipe a number of jets or short pi]ies branch upwards, «id ]ittBS inla the bung-holes of tile casks, one to each cask.
But thew; casks are Dot only cleansed after every time of using, tbey
inspetteil rmd measured ; and if any leakages or iiijiiries appear,
ns of repair arc at hand. Adjoining the building where the
cleansing is effected, a very large cooperage is seen, occupying three
f a aqiiare courL Here we trod our way willi some difficulty
; casks, old and new, — iron hoops that had seen hard service, and
destined to replace ihciu,— staves of various shapes and sizes, —
uid all tlie tools and working apparatus -neccasary for a cooperage on
large scale.
Under a range of sheds ftrrming part of the circuit of the large open : casks which have either been repaired and cleansed, or waiting for tliose operations. Therj; they lie, side by side, one on idler, one behind ajiotlier, in a. solid mag» of ejttraordinary eilent. idea of tbe number of casks lying here ready to be filled may bo formed from tbe fact that the whole number of butts, puncheons. barrels, uid similar vcsseU belonging to tbe eatabliehmeiit is between ■i«ty and seventy thousand !
detail the n
mber of hours
a6 DAYS AT THE FACTORIES.
employed in each part of the brewing processes, nor the particular time of day at which they commence ; but the reader will probably suppose that the operations are continued by night as well as by day. The coppers are almost uninterruptedly in use, and rekys of workmen succeed each other to attend them. But not only within the brewhouse is activity displayed betimes in the morning ; in the open court, long before sleepy London has roused its head, the draymen are busy in hauling up the butts of hevT. and placing them on the drays. So many butta are sent out from the establishment every day, and the advantage of conveying them in drays through the metropolis at as early an hour aa possible is so great, that by four o'clock in the morn- ing nil is bustle and activity — clerks and foremen superintending the operations, and men working the cranes by which the butta are lifted from the cellars to the draya. The form of these drays, of which seventy or eighty are constantly at work, ia familiar enough to every Londoner ; and we doubt not that the ears of rawiy passers-by woald ho grateful for the addition of springs or some other appendage to the drays, whereby their rattling, shaking, deafening progress over tie pavpd streets might be in some degree subdued ; we believe that some- thing of the kind has been already adopted.
If the brewers' drays are well known in London, what shall we say of brewers' horses? Who ever mistakes a brewer's horse for any other ? who, tliat baa ever passed one day in the London streets, has failed to remark these noble but unwieldy creatures,— unwieldy from very strength? And the drnynien too: here are specimens of the "physical man !" The horses seem made for the men and the men for the horsee; Mid we can hardly fancy such horses driven, or ridden Indy-wise, ex- cept by such ni^n. In tlie course of our visit, we passed round the extensive stables where the horses belonging to the brewery, nearly two hundred in number, are kept. Here were marks of the same well- organiaed system, the same cleanliness and order, as so many other parts of the estAblishmeiit present. Southward of the little burial- ground and of the store-buildings is a very large paved court, around which are the stables and subsidiary offices : here, a dwelling-house and laboratory for the veterinary surgeon, under whose care the health of the valuable stud is placed : there, a blacksmith's shop, provided with the necessary arrangements for shoeing horses : farther on, a harness- maker's shop, where necessary repairs to the harness are effected. But the principal of theae buildings are, aa may be supposed, the stables,
1
I
I
A DAY AT A BREWERY. S7
one range of which extends nearly three hunted feet in length. A clear passage leads throughout from end to end, the horses being ranged on either side with great regularity ; galleries or lofts for pro- render above them ; and an open space for ventilation along the middle of the stables. At one end of the long stable is a building in which the provender is prepared for the horses: a small 8t«am-engine, of five or six horse power, works machinery by which the oats are ' bruised or crushed before being given to the horses (a modem praC' tice, productive of much benefit to the health of the animal) ; and another machine by which the chaff is cut. By an ingenious arrange- ment, the waste steam from this engine can be directed into a water- trough, whereby any desired temperature may be given to the water which the horses drink.
In our ramble through the brewery, we came to a building where "Barclay, Perkins, and Co.'s Entire" stared us in the face in all shapes, colours, and sizes ; some boards higher tlian they were wide, others wider than high ; some flat, some convex ; some with gold letters on a green ground, others on red. These were the inscription- boards, so well known in the London streets, and so puzzling to strangers, who cannot conceive what the " Co.'s Entire " means. It appears that in bygone times, beer-retailers were wont to sell a kind of liquor called half and half, that is, half ale and half 'twopenny,' which had to be drawn from two casks. Afterwards a tasl« waa gradually acquired for ' three-threads,' a compound of ale, beer, and twopenny, which the retailer was necessitated to draw from three casks, — a process so troublesome, that it led to the brewing of a kind of beer which should combine the qualities of these three sorts, and which, being drawn entirely from one cask, obtained the name of entire butt beer. The circumstances under which the necessity arose have long since passed away ; but the term is still retained. The inscription boards, which inform us whose "Entire" is sold by the publican, are made in the part of the establishment to which we alluded above. One shop is devoted to the carpenters who prepare the boards, and another to the painters and gilders who finish them.
Before concluding our necessarily hasty sketch of thia vast establish- ment, we may observe that it is something more than a brewery : it is a memorial of pest times, carrying us back to the period when the Globe theatre occupied part of the site; and later, when Dr. Johnson was domiciled in an apartment over the entrance gate. In Boswell's
r
M daya at tub factories.
*I.if(! of JofanMin ' there ar« DUTDeroua iMten and TcpoTU'nf con- vnntiona ri^lotbg mom or l«u b> the brewer;' ; but without nitering upon theae, w* may bripfty Mate how Dib grrait lexicugraphu- became coniici^tcNl witli thin «pot
It ftpp««r« that in tlic ewly jmrt of Uil- Insi century t]i« brewery faelunged to a Mr. K&Wy, who n^ap*!! h fortiinr ilicrr, and Upon ihe marriage of whose daughter lo Lord Cobhain the hrfwcry wu sold to thd rider Mr. Thridc. I'hrftltr wu nn active nnd libeml man ; became aheriffof the county, and M.P. for the borough; and ilied in 1158, leaving his property lo a son whom he luu! eduraleil libcrnlly. Thi« •on marrird n WnUh lady nf good family, aiid. to uir the word* of Boewell, "although b aillurnt r.ircumilwicfs, he had good mum enough to carry on hi» father's trade, which wa« of such eiteni, that 1 remember be uncR told me he would not quit it for an annuity of trn thousand a yrair ; ' Not,' enid he, ' thai I get trn lliousand a year hy it, but it is nn Citatc to my family.' " Thr brnr brpwpil by Thrale nt rtic period hert^ alludtid to wai about thirty thousand Imrrels snnually, not onc-twcIM part of the quantity now brewed in the same establish- meut, which produces as much a* the nine principal breweries did in 1760. In 1765 Dr. Johnson wm introduced to Mr. and Mrt ThraTe by Malone; and from that time till tli« brewer's death, Johrifon tivM almostentiretyin their houses, at the brewery and at Streaiham. Before llie fire at the brrwcry in 1K)2, the room was pointed out, near th« gate, in which the Doctor wrote many of hi* most celebrated produc- tions, more particularly his Dictionary. In 1781 Mr. Thrale died, and as be had no sons, the eieciitor*. of whom Dr. Joluison was one, deemed it desirable to difi]>otte of the brewery. It was sold jointly to Mr. Barclay and Mr. Perkins (ilje latter of whom had been the super- intendent of llie brewery) for the enormous sura of one hundred and thirty-ftve tliousand pounds! Biiswell relates: " Wlien the sale of Thmle's brewery was going on, Johnson appeared bustling about, with an ink-horn and pen in his button-hole, like an exciseman ; and on being asked what he really considered to be tlie value of the property which was to be disposed of, mid, 'We are not here to sell a parcel of boilers and vaU, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dream of avarice."
i
ni.-A DAY AT A DISTILLERY.
mi
we hoi
axi
■'has 1
Tbb object of the next visit takes us up the river to tho vioinity of Chel»ea. Lei us, then, get on board one of the little river-steamer*, proeeed in that direction. After parsing under Vauxhall Bridge, we stop for n few mninenta — everybody now knows — at the Nine-Eims pier, and thence proceed iward towariU the termination of the route at Chelsea. On the left the S<iiith London Water-worke. as well as factories, ware- housra, and wharfs of diiTerent kinds ; at^d then arrive at the river-side house BO well known to all nmateur boatmen as llje ' Red HoUBe.' -On the ri^ht, after passing a gas-factory, we see the noble manufaelur- * ig premises of Me.s(rs. Cubitt, i)ie builders, with ilie chimney inclosed lied square tower, llien we come to the London Steel- works ; beyond which is the Belgrave Dock ; aiid WMlwsrd of both tall chimneys, one of whieh points out the Chelsr-a Water works, and tlie other the distillery of MeEsrs. Octavius Smith and Co., the establishment to which our attention is here directed. This lalter- lumed chimney is conspicuous from ihe river on account of its prn- celsbraled obelisk called ' Cleopatra's Needle ' having a model in its cnnstniction ; and although the summit has been somewhat shorn of its beauty by a lighlning-stroke, ihe symmetry of its form is still observable. The river-front of this fixrtory presents to view a dock, whereinlo barges laden with corn and coals fur ihe factory are conveyed to be unladen.
The entrance to the distillery is on tlie eastern side ; and on enter- ing the outer gates we find ourselves in an irregularly-shaped open court, aurronnded hy huitdinge, of wbich several are seen on Fig. 1. On the \eh ore large granaries, in which the grain, after being hoisted from barges in the dock, is stored. Beyond tliese we see various buildings connected with the etill-rooin, comprising a cylin- drical worm-tub of very large dimensions, water-tanks and cooling- lanks at a considerable elevalion, store-warehouses, &c. In front are
43
DAYS AT THE FACTORICS.
the offices and coundng-hoiues ; bounded on the right hj vartom work- • sbopt for smiths, millwrights, coppersmiths, carpenters, and other* engaged in the repair and adjustment of the apparatus used in the distillery. On the right of the entrance, and extending to a consider- ahle distance northward, are the mill and the brewhouae, wherein all those operations are conducted which precede the actual distillation. Stahlea and other outhouses occupy other parts of the area; while the open court presents a busy acene of traffic : here waggons being laden with casks about to leave the distillery ; at another spot yeast being brought in from the great London breweries ; at a third, ' grains ' being carted for conveyance to the dairies; and at a fourth, men filling barrels with ' spent- wash,' to be carried away as a fattening ingredient for cattle and pigs.
Before describing the operations of this establishment, it may be well to explain briefly the meaning generally attiiched to the terms ' distillation ' and ' distillery.' All kinds of grain, such as wheat, rye, barley, oats, &c., whether in the raw or the malted state, as well as the juices of fruits, of the sugar-cane, of potatoes, of beet-root, and of many other vegetable suhstances, contain certain elements which, by peculiar processes, are capable of being converted into ateohot or tpirit. Distillation always forms one of these operations ; but it is preceded by others which vary according to thi nature of the ingre- dients employed. The various liquids known by the names of brandy, rum, whiskey, hollands, gin, spirits of wine, cordials, and compounds, all contain the alcoholic principle, developed to a greater or less ex- tent by the process of distillation. French brandy is produced from wine; West Indian rum from sugar or molasses; and British spirit, whether called by the name of spirit of wine, British brandy, British rum, whiskey, or gin, from com. In every case the substance which undergoes the process of distillation is a sweet liquid ; but the means whereby this sweetness or saccharine quality is brought about differ according to circumstances. The different qualities presented by these various liquids depend partly on the alcoholic strength, partly on the substances whence they are produced, partly on the berries, herbs, and seeds with which they are flavoured, and partly on ihe mode in which the manufacture is conducted.
We are thus prepared to understand that the operations of a British distillery relate to the extraction of the alcoholic principle from various kinds of grain. We must next bear in mind that the extract produced
A DAV AT A DISTILLBBV. <3
from thig grain is brewed before being distilled -. it is in fact converted into a kind of beer before that changf ia induced which leads ta the production of spirits Hence it follows Uut man^ of the operations of ft distillery resemble those of a brewery. The brewer and the dis- tiller alike extract a saccharine substance from grain (principally nutted in respect to brewing, but more generally rate for distilling), by the process of ' mSBhing ;' and alike subject this sweet liquid, called 'worts,' to fermentation. The fermented liquor, modified in a parti- cular way, forms ' beer ' at the brewery ; whereas in a distillery it obtains the name of ' wash,' and is the liquid which undergoes the sub- sequent process of distillation.
The staple ingredient, then, at the distillery, is grain ; and this, in reference to the estahlbhment to which our attention will be now directed, is brought in barges belonging to the Rrm. These barges are laden from the vessels which bring the grain from various ports, the grain being brought in sacks containing four bushels each. The dock ia so contrived that the barges can float in at high-water, and pass im- mediately under the granary, into which the sacks are hoisted from the barge by means of tackle of the usual kind. The granary is a large brick building, having three extensive floors, on which the grain ia stored. This grain consists of both the malted and the raw kinds, the relative qualities of which may be thus briefly noted: — that malt is barley which has undergone, on the premises of the maltster, a pro- cess calculated ti> render it more fitted for the purposes of the brewer than barley or other grain in the raw or unmalted state ; but that the distiller can employ either raw or malted grain according to circum- stances. Malt being much more expensive, on account of the duty, than raw grun, the distiller usually employs as little of the former as the nature of the process requires. The proportion is now frequently one part of malt to ten or twelve of raw grain; the raw grain being varying mijitures of wheat, barley, rye, and oats, according to the state of the market; but more than half of the entire ingredients is gene- rally raw barley.
On one of the granary floors might he seen a heap of about two thousand quarters of kiln-dried barley, lying in a stratum five feet thick, and waiting to be conveyed to the mill. All the grain required at the distillery, about forty thousand quarters per annum, passes'thus through the granary; and when about to be ground into meal, it is conveyed to a room immediately over the mill-room, and discharged
41 nAVS AT TUB FACTORIES.
through trap-doors in the floor into cloOi pipe*, which conduct it to tb^ millitnnra. To the mill-room we next dvteeni; where wr spo rix pain of niiII-«lone«, ranged in a drol*', and wt in rooliun by a ahaft from the EUam-eiigLit> rising «p in Oio <;pntrp of tlip group. Tbaav •iz psira of tU>n»a, kept wlioUy or partially at worV according t:irl^uI^ nances, grind all thr raw grain; wliile tin* malt through a 'crushing-mill," cnnninting mainly of iwn roll nearly In roniaci. The object of thia differencp ia, thai the distlili requires to crush the mall, iMtead of ^hiding it — thn internal stance bring by this meaitH softened or dixinlegrat^il without cuttii the husk, a precaution which is not fumid necesaiiry in the c raw grain.
A visitor mmtt expect to lenvr this mill-room ns white u b n nor it he less plentifully sprinklnl witli meal when lie descends room bentialh. This lower room conuins a vertical cylindrical parti< tion, having wlUiin it the mectuuiiom whereby tlie mill-stonca rtttated In the room above, and around it pipes or openings, ttirough' which tlie gnmnd meal descends from the mills. Tlie mill-men faM«n sacks to thcsQ openings, arid thiii receive the meal as it descends, beated Ui a temperature of perhaps lOC^ hy the friction of the stonea. I-'ig. 2 represents the general nature of the operations in both these floors of the mill ; the upper division showing the puiiition o# llie millstones in the room above, and llio lower allowing the of the ground meat in the room beneath.
We next trace the meal, thus ground, to the brewliotise, through gallery or covered way, leuling from the south to the nortli de[Mir ment of the cslabliihment. In this hrewhousc are tlirco large coppery each provided with a fireplncn undemcnth, and the whole capable containing about RfVy thousand gallons ; tliese are for the purpose hrating the water wherewith the brewing process is effected. 1 most important vessels in the brewhouse are the ' mash-tuns,' two immber: these are ca«t-iron circular vessels, upwards of twenty feet In diameter, and each ciipable of containing twenty thousand gallons ; each is provided with a double bolloin, one above the other, havin vacancy between them, and the upper one being pierced with smnU holes an inch or two apart, From the middle of esich tun i tical shaft, set in mntirjn by a steam-engine, and acting iip<in horizontal arms, studded with spikes or pins on all sides; this apparatus, by rots- ting both horizontally and vertically, efTectually stirs and agitates any ingredients wliich may he in the tun.
M DAYS AT THE FACTORIES.
All being md; far the brewing, hot wUer u admitted to the ' msab- tone' by pipea leading from the coppers; while ground meal ia thrown in at th^opcn top of esch tun. The nclcB of ground meal are atored in the mill adjoining the brewhoiue, and are from thence wheeled to the tun on low hand -carriage!. Thia ia a very bustling scene when a ' maahing ' ia about tii commence, ten or a dozen men being employed to wheel in the Mcks, discharge the meal, and return for another cargo. We may here remark that the water ia conveyed to the coppers from a very large cast-iron tank, or ' liquor-lwck,' on another part of the pre- mises : it ia pumped into this tank from a reservoir sunk below the level of the ground in the nurth-weat part i)f the premiaea, the reser- voir being supplied by a pipe leading from the Thames at a point within the limits of low-water ; so that a constant supply of water i« thus obtained.
The crushed malt, the ground grain, and the liot water, being admitted into the tuns in the requisite proportions, the rotating stirrer or ' mashing- machine' is put into aiTtinn, whereby the solid and liquid ingredients arc so completely mixed up together, that the water is enabled to extract the iiacchariiic elements from the meal. Men are also employed with long-handled instruments to itir the sediment,
U-tftm^Vf 3.
y
I DAV AT A DI9TII.I.ERY.
47
^h might otherwise reroajn at the bottom ; and a ic«ne a then eeented such as is shown in Fig. 3. Tliese operations continue for two or three hours, during which a striking chemicul change hai been going on. Kleal consists principally at glvlen uxd itarrh ; and by the agency of water and a sufficient tempemturc this starch becomes converted into sugar. The precise explanation of this change iiivolvi's chemical niceties into which we need not enter ; hut it will be suffi- cient to say, that the wat*r, converted into ' worts ' by ibe process r>f mashing, acquires a sweet though sickly taste, arising from the starcli of the meal having been converted into sugar.
When the ' mashing ' has been continued to a certain estwit, five or sis pipes arc opened, through which the ' worts ' are allowed U} flow into cost-b-on cisterns called ' under-backa,' in a cellar beneath. The meal is retained by the upper or false bottom of the niasb-tun. which thus acts aa a sieve or strainer, allowing notliing but liquid to pass through tlie jierfomtions. The meal does not lose nil its saccharine quality by this first mnsbing : it is therefore ' mashed ' a second and a third time, in fresh portions of water ; producing ' worts ' of less and less strength. As to tlie number of limes that th« mashing is repealed, the quantity of water used for a given weight of meal at each masliing, the tempera- ture of the water, and the length of time during which the mashing is ed — these are points on which each individual manufacturer his skill and Judgment, and may possibly V1U7 considerably in diderent e-stabliahments. When the saccharine quEdi^es of the meal are as far as possible extracted, the residue, under the name of ' grains,'
Rcarrieil out to the grain-siage, in the yard of the distillery, thence to sold IIS food for cattle. From the under-backs, the ' worts* are pumped up to the coolers or oling-floors, occupying the upper portion of a building contiguous to the brewhouse on the north. These floors are covered or pavod with cast-iron plates, three or four feet square, and joined edge to edge j raised ledges are placed across the floors at certain distances, to divide them into compartmcnta ; and into the sballow cells or tniys Urns formed the hot wort is introduceil. Tlie whole floor, upwards of a hundred and fifty feet in length, becomes thus covered with a stratum oF hot liquor five or six inches deep, which is speedily cooled hy the access of air from open windows on all sides of the coolers. This speedy cooling is necessary to prevent the acidification of the sweet wort, a. result which has a tendency to follow when the cooling is loo
I
DAYS AT THE FACTORIKS.
slowly effected. There are two of thwe cijoling- floors, boili paved whh ca»i-iron pUtes, and both arranged in a similar manner. Such a mode of cooling ii very prevalently adopted in the large breweries and diatillpricB ; thoug;h in some casea 'refrigerators' are employed, in which the hot wort passes through pipes exposed externally to a current of cold water. It is merely a question of expediency as to which method is employed ; for the principle is the same in both cBses, viz., the rapiil ab- ■traction of heat by a medium colder than the wort itself. In Fig. 4 is represented one of these floors, covered with the hot liquid, nnd suppltsd with certain pieces of apparatus whereby a current of cool air is more efTectiully
Frc)m the coolers the wort descends into the 'fermBnting-backs,* a aeries of square vessels of enormous dimensions : they are sixteen in number, each about thirty feet long and half as wide, having an aggregate capacity of nearly half li million gallons. Here the liquid ia ex- posed to the action of yaast, bought for that purpose of the great porter-brew- ers : the alcoholic fermentation ensue*, whereby the sugar, which had been de- veloped from the grain during the pro- cess of mashing, becomes converted into alcohol or spirit. This is one of the delicate of all the operations, whi in a brewery or a distillery, requirini^ extensive knowledge both of the principles of cliemistry and of pt*©. licai results. The nature of the process may be brieHy explained as follows : — The wort, inconsequence of coutiining n considerable
1 into
>etb^H
J
A DaV at a DISTILLERV. t«
niiit of lacclutruie mattnr in soIutioTi, is lienvier than wnUr ; and inufftcturera expreas the degree of density by stating liow in&tiy tnds heavier a barrel uf wort is than a barrel of water. Whatever ' be the ilreiigth of the wort actually obutined in any one mashing, tiller is confined to certain limit* when he transfert the niingled wort to the fermenting- tun ; for he ia obliged by Ihw to bring the wort to a specific gravity somewhere between 1"030 and 1 "090, water being I'OOO. I'hia specific gravity becomes gradually leaseiied in the fermenting-backs, by the gradual conversion of the sugar into alcohol ; this latter named liquid being very much lighter than water. The specific gravity is in fact brought down very near to iliat of di*' lilled water, and tlie wort, now denominated ' wash,' may be considered as a mixture of alcohol and water, containing B «:nuU qu&nlity of an es- sential oil, a little sacchnrine matter, and one or two oilier substances. We now come to that part of tbe distiller's operations where it
I desirable to speak of the relations between the manufacturer dthe Excise. The system of Bupervision wliereby the revenue spirits is collected ia a remarkable instance of Excise machinery, — upervision rendered important by ihe large revenue annually collected, d by the comparatively small number of establishments from which t payments are made. The single firm whose establishment forms the bject of our present noticn is said to pay no less a sum than 300,000i. n-yeor to government in duty on the spirits manufactured ; and as the duty per gallon ia estimated on spirits of one particular degree of strength, Uie utmost caution is necessary in testing all the spirits pro- ' ", US a guarantee tliat every sample shall pay a duty exactly pro- nnte both to its quantity and its sirengtli. As agents on the part I government, there are excise-officers almost constantly present :ry distillery, day and night. They succeed each other, one or et a time as may be necessary, after intervals of eight hours ; I periods being from six in the morning till two in the afternoon, a thence to ten at niglil, and from thence lo six the next morning. 1 act of parliament by which distilleries are now regulated was 1 in 1825. By its provisions no distiller is allowed to commence t till he has procured a licence, which licence is to be re- 1 annually; nor is he allowed to keep on his premises a still a certain capacity, The number of stills, chargers, receivers, f, employed by him ia also placed under certain restrictions ; and the uttne is marked out as to the mode in which the liquid sliall
50 DAYS AT THR FACTORIK9.
pau from one veuel to another in the process of diitill&tion. The number of openings in the principftl vesaels \a ezprewljr stated ; and the most ecrupulou* care ia taken that nothing shall p«H from one vesael to another without flowing through a pipe provided with a cock or valve of which the excise-officer has the key. He ii provided with keys whereby he can lock up the furnace-doors, lock up the stilli, and in ftict exercise a most thorough control over all the operations. In order furtlicr to facilitate the supervision of the excise- ofEcers, the brewing and the distilling take place in alternate periods ; one portion of time being appropriated to the preparation of * wash,' or ' fermented wort,' in the brewery, anil the next to distillation of spirit from the wash thus produced. On paying a visit to a distillery, therefore, we are likely to find one-half of the operations suspendeil, according u it may happen to be brewing-time or distilling-timc. These complex arrangements arise principally out of the peculiar mode in which the duty is estimated, fur not only is the spirit tested as to {)uantity and strength during and after [lie process of distillation, but the si>eciftc gravity of the ' wort ' and of the ' wash ' is taken, the one heavy and the otlier light, and an assumption is made that a given quantity of spirit will result from a given diifcrencc in tlicHc two specific gravities. If it happens tliat the actual quantity of sjiirit, ascertained after the distillation, differs from the hyptjthetii^al quantity arising from the pre- vious calculations of the iifficer, ho gives to the government the ' bene- fit of the douht,' and charges duty on the higher quantity, whicliever that may happen to be. The mode in which this double system of com- putation ia likely to check improvements in manufacture forms a delicate subject, into whicli we cannot hero enter.
We shall now be prepared to follow a routine of processes in which the excise-officer is an important personage. We have explained that the ' wort,' or sweet liquor arising from the mashing, fcrnicnta in the fermen ting-backs until its sjwcific gravity is greatly reduced, and its saccharine quality exchanged fur one more alcoholic, lliis liquid, now called ' wash,' is conveyed to a vessel called the ' wash-cliarger,' as the first step in the distilling process. In order that the inlentiona of the law may be carried out, which prohibit the simultaneous brew- ing and distilling in one establishment, the buildings are detached, or at lesat conveniently divided. The still house, to which attention may next be directed, is a large, irregular building occupied by the vessels immediately connected with the distillation ; the princiiwl of these
A DAY AT A DISTIiXBRV. SI
veaaela being called ' chargen,' ' stills,' and ' receivera ;' the first to ■uppl^ tlic second, and the third to receive the product A glance through this building enables a visitor to observe that the pipes, of which a large quantity is visible, are painted of different colours. This illustrates another of the peculiar rules whereby ths operations of a distillery are governed ; for, in order to facilitate the supervision of the officer, and to enable him to trace the routine of processes con- veniently, the legislature requires that every pipe for the conveyance of water shall be painted black, those for the conveyance of ' wort ' or ' wasb ' red, those for the product of the first distillation blue, and Aose for the finished spirit while. Another regulation is, that what- ever may be the size and arrangement of the distillery, ladders and all other conveniences shall be provided for the easy access of the officer to all the different vessels.
The ' wash-chai^r,' into which the wufa is conveyed from the fermenting- vessels. Is a large iron tank or closed cistern, capable of containing about Air^ thousand gallons. By the exprett terms of the law, this vessel mmt be entirely closed in, and must communicate only with the fermenting-vessel and with the stiU, so that nothing can flow into it except from the former, and nothing flow out of it except into the latter. In the top or cover is a small hole, about an inch square, into which the officer dips a graduated rod ; the object being to deter- mine whether the quantity entering this vessel is the same as had been contained in the fermenting-backs. The officer keeps the key of the cocks or valves leading into and from this vessel, whereby nothing can enter the still until he has unlocked the requisite pipes. Fig. 5 repre- sents one of the two large wash-etills into which the wash fiowa from the wash-charger. This is a copper vessel capable of containing more than twenty thousand gallons. It is heated by a fire beneath, and is terroinated at the top by a cover, which gradually decreases in diame- ter, and at length joins the 'worm,' of which we shall presently speak. The still is formed of plates of copper firmly riveted, and otherwise so contrived as to be air and water tight.
It will be well here to consider briefly the nature of the process carried on in the large still. The ' wash ' conveyed into it consists mainly of alcohol and water, in the proportion (generally) of about six gallons of pure alcohol, or twelve gallons of ' proof spirit,' in a hundred gallons of wash; 'proof spirit' being composed of about equal parts of alcohol and water. Water passes off in the form of
DAYS AT THE FACTORIES.
Wuh-Mlll.—Flg. i.
vnpour at ■ temperature of 212?; wliilc alcohol dops the same at the low temperature of about 160°; and the distiller avails himself of tbi* circuniitance to effect a separation of the two liquids. He applies fire to the still, by which the * wash ' is gradually heated ; and when the temperature attains 180°, the alcohol begins to vaporise and to ascend t« the top of the still. The heat is kept up to some point between the two extremes of 180° and 212°, until all the alcohol has passed off in the state of vapour. But during this process, partly on account of the restrictions imposed by the legislature, and partly through the scientific difficulties of the subject, a considerable quantttj of water passes off with the spirit and mingles with it in the form of T^wur. In France, where the operations of a distillery are not ao rigidly controlled by the government as in England, improvements in great number have been from tine to time introduced, with a view of effecting a complete separation of the two liquids in one operation : to what extent and under what limitations these attempts have suc- ceeded, we need not discuss here ; it will suffice to state that in Eng-
A DAY AT A DISTILLERY. S3
land 80 much aqueoiu vapour pasaes over with the alcohol as to render the Utter comparatively veak. When all the alcoholic ingredient it distilled from the wash, the latter, under the name of ' spent wash,' is conveyed from the still to a large open vessel in tbc yard of the dis- tillery. It ia thence carried away in barrels hy persons who keep cattle or pigs '. the dry food of these animals, being sprinkled with some of the spent wash, acquires a fattening quality, which gives a value to the liquid after it has ceased to possess any to the distiller. Many distilleries have enormous 'piggeries' attached to them, the grunting inhahitants of which are fattened on these dainties.
But it may now he asked, what becomes of the alcoholic vapour driven off by the heat of the still ? The answer to this question forms the next step in our routine of processes. In the frontispiece is seen a very large cylindrical vessel near the chimney. This is called the ' worm-tub,' and contains the means for condensing the vapour after the latter has ascended from the still. This large vessel, which ia between thirty and forty feet in height, contains a worm, or coil of cop- per pipe, circling round it in a screw-like form from top to bottom. Tlie pipe is not much less than two feet in diameter where it enters the worm-tub, but gradually diminishes as it descends, till it leaves the vessel with a diameter of less than two inches. The vacant space of the worm-tub, not occupied by the pipe, is filled up with water, which is constantly flowing in from a water-tank, or ' liquor-back,' at the top of the still-house, — an overflow from the top being necessarily provided for. All the vapour which ascends from the still passes into and through this worm or coil of pipe, and in its passage becomes con- densed into a liquid by the coldness of the water contained in the worm-tub. Whenever vapour is condensed into liquid, a large amount of latent heat is given out ; and as this occurs during the condensation of the vapour in the worm, the water in the worm-tub becomes gra- dually heated, until at length its temperature would he such as to unfit it for the office of a refrigerator, were there not a constant sup- ply of cold water flowing in, and an equal quantity of heated water flowing out The rate of change is so regulated as to keep the water in the worm-tub at as low a temperature as possible. There is another arrangement of worm connected with one or two of the stills, altlMugh the principle is the same. We pass up through the still-house to the roof, and there find that a large area is occupied by tanks or square cisterns, through which cold water is constantly flowing from the
91 0X^*8 AT THE FACTORIES.
mervoir. The pipe forming the worm coila round and round in thne Unki, gndiully parting with ita h«tt to the wstcr hy which it ii nir- rounded, and thiu condenses the apiritunus \-apour pawing through the worn) Irom the still. Bj an ingenious arrangement the water, when too hot fur the purpo«e of condensation, is allowed to fall on the float- boards nf a large watpr-wheel, which thus fumlshea moving-pow«r for some of the punipa in the still-house.
The liquid which flows out at the lower end nf the worm ia called, in the language of the diatillerr, < low-wines :' it is a verj weak kiod of spirit, containing nil tlic alcohol previovutjr existing in the ' wash,' mingled with a considerahle <)uantity of water. As we shall now have to speak of the strength of spirit, it may be desirable to explain the nature of the standard employed \>j tlie Excise. Alcohol being of a lower specific gravity than water, a quart or any other quantity of the former would weigh less tlian ai^ equal quantity of the latter; and any mixture of the two will weigh more or leas according aa the water or the alcohol predominate, 'ilie Excise ndopt« u a standard tliat par- ticular mixture of alcohol and water whose weight bears to that of an equal bulk of distilled water at a medium temperature the ratio of twelve to thirteen : that is, supposing a given hulk of distilled water weighed thirteen ounces, then an equal bulk of standard spirit will weigh twelve ounces. Tliis particular degree of alcoholic strength u called 'proof spirit,' and is the standard to which all otlier strengtha are referred : it consists almost exactly of one-half pure alcohol and one-half water. The strengths of all mixtures of alcohol and water — Galled by the general name of spirits — are ascertained by means of their specific gravity, and thia is determined by a hydrometer, of which that kind known as ' Sikea's Hydrometer ' is used hy the Excise. This instrument is capable of weighing all liquids as light as the strongest spirits of wine, or as heavy as water, and consequently all mixtures of the two. The scale of the instrument ia graduated, and these gradua- tiona are laid to be *above proof or 'below proof,' according as tLey indicate a degree of strength alxivc or below that of ' proof spirit '; *100* below proof is equivalent to pure water, while "iV above proof is about equivalent to the strongest s]>irit ever produced bjr distillation. When the strength exceeds '43' above proof,' the liquid is known hy the name of rpiriti of wine, and constitutes the strongest form in which spirit is preiented to us, except in the refined operationa of the chemist's laboratory.
A DAY AT A DISTU-LEtlV. 35
Those cx|ilanalions will enable ns to allude to the atrenglh of apirita in the liinguage of the dtatUlcry. Wc mny pixineetl ti) «tiite, Ihen, tlwt iliR 'low-winea' leave the worm of tfio WAsli-atill M n rtreiigtii vrry mmiy degrees ' below jiroof," in consetjuence of ibe largi" ({uaiitity of water mingled with the alcohol. The blue pipe wliich cuterges from the woriD-tiib, and which contains the 'low-winea,' terminates in tlie curious piece of appRmtua represented in Fig. fi. This opparntiw is called the 'worm-aaTe,' and is intended to afford the meaiu of testing
m^, or fl}-diomct«r (ppiusdiH.
I cleames and strength of llie liquid flowing through it. The quid flows from the end of the pipe into a hollow glass globe rc- ceivcr, and from thence tlowa back thruiigh a larger pipe concentric with the fumier. B; turning ■ email handle, n sniall jwrtion of the liiiuid IB made to pusa into nn upright cyliinlrical glass ve«el two r three inches in diameter; and into iliis cylinder the hydrometer bitroduced for inetunring the strength of the liijuid.
56
DAYS AT THR FACTORIKS.
From the worm-safe the low-wines flow into vessels called * low- wine receivers,' the stronger portion being allowed to flow into one receiver, and the weaker into another. These receivers, like all the other vessels employed in a distillery, are under the control of the excise-officer, who ascertains the quantity and the strength of the low- wines obtained by distillation. From the quantity and the specific gravity can be ascertained the amount of ' proof spirit ' contained in the low-wines receiver, and this amount is entered as a check against the operations in other parts of the process.
The * low-wines,' being much too weak for any of the ordinary pur- poses of spirit, have to be rc-distilled, as a means of driving off a con- siderable proportion of water. This re-distillation is effected in other vessels called ' low-wine stills,' or sometimes ' spirit-stills.' But here some degree of complication occurs, of which we can only speak in a general way. Provided all the wash be distilled in the wash-still, and the product collected in the low-wines receivers, the Excise allows the distiller a certain latitude as to the subsequent distillations in the spirit-still. He may redistil over and over again, with a view to im- prove the quality of his spirit, or to economize ingredients, provided the officer can retain throughout the means of determining that all the spirit obtainable from the wash is ultimately collected in the spirits- receiver, and that none is so collected but what can be thus accounted for. This latitude seems to have been allowed to the distiller partly because a portion of the spirit, redistilled from the low-wines, possesses a disagreeable odour and flavour, which must by some means be re- moved, and which the distiller may devise the means for removing more effectually if allowed to exercise his judgment in the matter. These impure portions of the spirit, which are called * feints,' or * faints,' and whicli derive their peculiar quality principally from a foetid oil yielded by the husks of the grain, are collected in separate receivers, and are thence reconveyed to the spirit-still to be redistilled. At this point in the proceedings, therefore, each distiller is enabled to exercise his judgment, and apply the results of his experience in the management of his distillery : hence, too, arise the distinctions between strong and weak * low-wines,' and strong and weak * feints'— distinctions made to further the views of the distiller. It will be sufficient for our present purpose, however, to state generally, that one distillation in tlie wash-still converts all the alcoholic portion of the wash into low- wines; and that one distillation in the spirit-still converts the greater
A DAY AT A DISTILLERY. 07
part of the low-wines into apirita, the remaining portion requiring & third distillation.
We had occasion to speak of two different modes of condensing the vapour adopted at the distillery, and have now to describe a. third. The spiril^still is surmounted by a tall copper cylinder, the interior of which contains a number of small pipes ; cold water is kepi constantly flowing through these pipes, so adjusted to the heat oftlie cylinder as to maintain a pretty constant temperature of 180° or 190°, Now as the vapour rises from the still into the cylindrical condenser, and comes in contact with the inner pipes, the aqueous portion falls down again into the stilt in the form of water, being unttble to maintain the va- poric form when in contact with aubatances at so low a temperature as 190°. But the alcoholic portion remains in the state of vapour at that temperature, and paasea off into the worm of the still, there to be condensed into spirit
We have apoken only of one ' safe ' for the exhibition and testing of the distilled product But there are four auch in the distillery to which our attention ia directed : they are arranged two on either side of a convenient platform, raised a few stepa above the floor of the still-room, and are adapted to receive the varioua kinds of ' low-wincB,' 'feints,' and 'spirits,* as they proceed from the condensing-worma to the respective receivers.
The spirit-receiver is a vessel under the especial supervision of the excise officers, since the final adjustment of dnty is regulated by the quantity and strength of the contents of this receiver. We have be- fore stated that the officer gauges the quantity and specific gravity of the worts in the fermenting'back, and calculates tlie quantity of proof spirit which ought to be charged for therein, amounting to twelve gal- lons of proof-spirit from one hundred gallons of wort when the latter has a specific gravity of r060. He also gauges the quantity and strength of the proof-spirit in the ' low-wines,' in the feints, and lastly in the finished spirits, with a view to let one method act as a check to the other. The duty is paid on the actual quantity of proof-spirit in the spirit-receiver ; hut should this prove, on an average of a twelve- month, to be less than the quantity estimated by the gauge of the worts or wash, the distiller has to pay up the deficiency : if, on the contrary, there is an excess, the Excise retains the benefit of that excess. It was stated in evidence given before a Committee of the House of Commons on DisUIIation, a few years ago, that the quantity of proof-spirit pro-
68
DAYS AT THE FACTORIES.
duced is generally rather over than under the quantity estimated from the wash ; hut that the estimate is a very near approximation aa a general average. If the spirit in the receiver is * over-proof/ an in- creased rate of duty is not charged, hut the spirit is hypothetically increased in quantity to the requisite dilution, and then the duty ap- plied. Suppose, for example, there is one hundred gallons of spirit 25" over-proof; this implies that if twenty-five gallons of water were added the mixture would he at proof; the distiller is thereupon charged duty on one hundred and twenty-five gallons of proof-spirit.
From the spirit-receiver, the spirit passes to tlie store-warehouse, a long huilding situated in the western part of the distillery. Here are ranged seven or eight large store- vat«», numhered (as most of the ves- sels are required hy law to he in a distillery) and inscribed with their liquid capacity. Tliis store-room m provided with the requisite con- veniences for filling casks from tlic storc-vats, and for despatching them from the distillery. As spirit does not, like beer, improve by being kept in store for a considerable period, there is no necessity for that vast array of vats which forms such an ol^ject of wonder at the great porter-breweries ; and as spirit is, bulk for bulk, twelve or fif- teen times dearer than porter, a small establishment of barrels, waggons, horses, &c. will be adequate for the business of a large distillery.
Rectifying and Compounding.
Let us now recapitulate the steps througli which we have traced the production of spirit. In the first place the grain — consisting of any of the usual varieties, and either raw or molted — is crushed or ground, as a means of allowing hot water to act more readily on the farinaceous ingredient. In tlie next place this grain is mashed with water till a heavy liquid called * worts ' is extracted. Then the * worts* are fermented, by which the faccharine principle is converted into alcohol ; and lastly, this alcohol is, by repeated distillations, separated from the greater portion of the water with which it liad been com- bined. The result is called * plain British spirits.' But we have not yet done with it ; we have yet to trace it through the hands of another manufacturer.
The liquid so highly valued in science as * spirit of wine,' the various forms of spirituous liquors known as hollands, whiskey, gin, British brandy, &c., and the cordials known as peppermint, cloves, aniseed,
A DAV AT A DBTILLKRV. 5»
L' produced hy the Redifier from plain spirit purchsAcd by bim I the Distiller. This la n diiUncttun which we have nut lullierto n opportunity of explaining. Aa a meuu of preventing any iinr- iptitious proceedings in rt^spect of duty, tlM exctae laws prohibit tbe • currying on of two distilleries, or one diBtUIery and a rectifying e»tft- liUshment, within a ijoarter of a mile of each other. They aUo limit ths quantity of Bpirit which the distilli^r may sell to a minim um «f eighty gallons at one time, with which must be given a * permit.' jVs a general rule we may state tliat British spirit (we exclude mention of Scotch and Iriah wldekey, as, nllhotigh plain malt-epirit, they are regu- lated by clauBca in the act applying specially to tliem) is but little I the form in which it leaves the distillery, since it receives tarn the hands of the rectifier the peculiar propcrtica by which it is ered familiar. Hie person's name often attached to spirituom liquors, ns a guornjitce for the quality, ia the name not uf llie distiller, but of the rcctilier. There are only six distilleries in the vicinity of London, and, we believe, no more than nine in tlie whiile uf England ; nil tlie olhvr eslabliahments called by tliat name, lictng places where tlic spirit, made from the malt or grain by the dintnier, ii redi«till«>d, ' rectilied ' or purified, and compoundvd witli rarioua vcgetablo suLt- stancca tu impart flavotir.
Among the rectifying distilleries in the metropolis wt- haie availed ^Anrselvea of permission to visit that of Aletsra. Stephen Child and 1 Trinity Street, Southwark, a peculiarly elegant and scientific estnhtiahment, in which the resources of modern science are brought to bear un the particular branch of tnanufnctiirc with much tact and dJGcriminittbn. Tliis distillery has been recently erected un a plot of ground belonging, we believe, to tlio 'I'riiiity House ; and in virtue of
PMipnlation tliat the building shniild be an architectural ornauient to Iw spot, the exterior has been made one uf tlie most highly decorated I tliat part of tlie metropolis : indeed its facade would bear compari- Ml with most of the West-end club-houses. Thi» distillery consists of a square court-yard surrounded by baild- Igs. The eairtem, western, and southern sides comprise various offices «nd buildings of a sutwidiiiry character, sucli as warehouses, waggon- slu'ds, stables, bomess-rooms, &c. ; while thi- northern side comprises the buihliug in which all tlie operations of the diatitlcry arc carriwl on. Tills latter is surmounted by an aruunenta] diimney, which is likely long to retain its cleanly apjiearanci!, for nearly all tlie smuke
JBiea ■ toowr HKam
^^ Am
^Mnrsel
DAYS AT THK FACTOHiB*.
roDKUmed ; n principle, the fnrUinr a iiirnc.lorica would bn ■ itpp of incaloal ■ImU Wn (lc-«rrib« iJic nrrangt-niciit of Hue i liWing liy tracing the progrew of tlic •pirit t]
profJitrwl by ilip fum*cp« ii tiftR of whidi ii benpfit." \" pATlB uf the
The raw spirit U Mild by the distiller to tbc rcclllier in two i)18ei> strengths, viz. 25" <iver-iJT<iiif, and 1 1' over-pruof, UiiJj c»f which ^ rigorously 6xM by thn legislnturr. The spirit is hn^ughl lo llic v tilior in casks lielonging to the distiller, witli nn rxriee i>emiit; uidJ I'fEcer visitit the rectifying dislillery to see that all the spirits rccoifi there huvn paid duty : hpynrxl this [toint the rxciiK^ laws do not cani the rectifier, except in one or two niinur pointa. Suppiwing a cankfl raw spirits to hr* conveyed to Mesiirs. Child's eftAblislimmt, it ii into ci largo sqiinro room rolled th« wnrrhniur^ lined on two side* n rows of fiorn-vata, and opening into the still-room. The null is rollj upon n weighitig-mnchinp, wliich is coniieclisl tu a very ingeniooi constrnoted steelyard, whereby the weight of the spirit atid c ileteriiiined. Th^ empty cask being anerwards weighed, affordi 4 menns of determining the exact weight of the spirit; aflvr whie^ reference to a iherinometer and to a printed table sliows the ca number of gallons of spirit. The weighing-machine being level * and inilee<l forming part of the floor, and the steelyard being portaM| the necessity for heavy scales is wholly obviated.
When the full cask luis been weighed, it is n trap-door in the floor, tlm bung ix removed, an air-vent is i>peueil, • the spirit flowK out into a slorn-vat place<l in the room beneath for ^ reception. This irajvdoor is provided wiili means for saving i alcoholic vapour which may ri»e from ihc spirit henealii. proceed to tlie underground vaults, where wc see a range of store-vi for the reception of raw spirit, preparatory to tlie rectifying prncesn and from thence we trace llie spirit, by means uf pipes, t room, an npnrtment small in dimensions, but full of scientific apfd ances. On one side of this room we sec a large iron tank, alMiut thirfi feet lung and len high : lliia ia divided into four conipartments, i serves as a worm-tank for contvning the cold water with which i
* A aoelMir, liaviDg for il* olijrcl the furlhimnci' of Mftn^litnn iiTipKiTprDcii the pNMnt time liudalilj mgagid in impnaing Uiit mnl iin|wrt«ii( luliiMi oi ciiliun urnmnulkclurm; and, it ii to be lii>|ieil, villi ■ jaopcct of ulrltnslc auc
A DAV AT A DlSniXKRY. 61
■pint u condeiued. Immedititelj' in front of thU i« a range of four ttUb, one for gin, one for spirit of wine, one for British brandy and British mm, and one for cordials. These stills are not heated by open fires, but by steam ; a layer or thin stratuni of steam being allowed to act on the lower half of each still, something on the principle of a sugar-boiler. The steam for this purpose is generated in two large cylindrical boilers, heated by smoke-consuming furnaces in which Merthyr Tydvil coals are burned, the steam-pipes being covered with non-conducting substances to prevent the loss of beat.
Supposing the spirit is to be converted into gin, one of the stills is seven-tenths filled from the store-vats, and steam is admitted to act on the still. The contents ascend in vapour, which is afterwards con- densed in the worm-tanks. This distillation is tbe rectifying of the spirit, by which a certain portion of essential oil is removed from it. Then ensues the compouTuUng, which is a re-distillation with certain herbs, berries, and seeds, in order to impart the particular flavour whereby tbe liquid is known. Whatever may be the strength of the spirit when it come-s into the hands of the rectifier, he reduces it, when in the form of gin, to a strength not greater than 11° under- proof.
If spirit of wine is to be mode, the crude spirit is pumped into a still whose upper part consists of a vertical cylinder, containing a large number of pipes. The vapour ascending these pipes, and the pipes being surrounded by water at about 180°, tbe arrangement effects (on the principle we have before explained) so extensive a separation be- tween the alcoholic and aqueous vapour, that spirit can be obtained as high as $T over-proof. It must, by law, be as strong as 43° over-proof; but the saleable strengths are from about 54° to 60°.
If British brandy, British rum, or cordials are to be made, the spirit is redistilled with various vegetable substances calculated to impart the requisite flavour. By an ingenious arrangement, patented, we believe, by Messrs. Pontifex, the alcoholic vapour, instead of con- densing in the worm- tank, passes into a flavouring-vessel containing ibe ingredients, so as to imbibe the qualities of those ingredients while condensing : it is again converted into vapour, and then passec through the worm-tank, to be finally condensed in the usual way.
AU the various liquors, as condensed in the worm, are con- ducted by pipes into store-vats contained in a different part of the building; but in their way thither they pass through hollow vessels
r
aiM *mim:
DAYS AT not rjkCTtmiBL
■inilu' in object mi in prlncijitr to iImm * «t Hann. Smth'; hut dMfering in aMmrmextaa. In d slio ke|H a powerfnl hj'ilrvBlk- fnm, ci|«lik it •i^tiof • jBinMiii at K hundred and fiftjr Um* : Out it tmjiojM lor yuaaJng Mhw of the (rtriU wfd in ttM praparatian at enHaUa, aoeli a« laaybaiij mti dtarry- tnand]'. In the Bppar pavt of tba baiUinK ia » atwc-nMiB lor ihm cfaBMBion, pepparmim, dnraa, aBiaMd, jcndpn-bariaa, sad nffian bcTTMa, avMla, and (hdta wed in the preiiitian nf covdadi^ and in navouring tlie varioni kind* of apirit, lA^rtbar viA dm lanniiila appn- ratns Tor prpparinf; then for tlie lull.
Id rvrry part of thi« eatahlbhtnmt the irraiymwHa tot ikm econe- taitiog (if b«t ar^ my complelr. We har* wid that lb« fbi tmiira conaoma nearly all tbtffr own moke. TUa ■ aflected hf awppljiug ttui tn Mich a manmtr, that the make frotn the new enal Buut pnn oTirr hi^y beatrd fnel \»tarr it can nweh the ehinmay, whmby nearly all the carbon ii broni^t tnio pra6tBUe aiiniliij ■!■■! Tim •tQli, too, are nut only heated by Heam, hrwttght frnoi boOava Id pipea nrriiiil iilrh iiiiii r niiiliii iJnn ■iilalaiiiin.hiil llii liiiaC fif thiaataani nhaii condmaed ii even mtmI. A anaU appantni called a * eoBdananf-bot ' k jilanH) !n thdUIJ-nmin for thic pnrpcae^ and acts ■• foDDwi >— Aa GMaa 1^10 itf am, admitted inVi a hollow jadcct round the bottoni of encb atill, becomea condensed Itito wMer by the lower Mnperatmw ofMrronnd- ing l>odi«a, tliis hot water flowa into a cylindrical caTtty in <MA ■ Itravy circular «lune niovet up and down. Thi* rtmw ii rzaetly ba- lancrd by a Wright at the other end of a lever, eo that a antall power MuRicoi to mote tlie Mone. The hot water, fi[Un|[ the apnoe beneadh the aiaar, gradually raiics it, and in so doing acta npoo a (stch wtudi (ijwTui D viilvr, snd allnw-n nil the water to daacend into the boiler in ihn rnnm bene&tli, Tiiua dl llie heat contained tn the cmdenaed ttcnm ia cfiectuHlly prevprveJ.
'I'h^ faiiili-rs, itrnm-engiiips, nnd pumps, pmployed in the variona opcTationa of the c«ubli*hin<>nt, arn all ,or the moit mndnrn fnrma, and are amnged with singular trcommiy of i>[iace, each being placed within a very few fcfl of the aiiol where its puwer is lo be practically ap])Ued.
-A DAY AT A VINEGAR AND BRITISH-WINE FACTORY.
TasRE exists— sot only between malt liquon and ipirits, u explained in the la«t two articles, bat between all the disaimilar liquids beerr spirits, vinegar, and wiVw — a connexion little supposed by the majoritj of those who use diem. Who would expect, unless he had attended ■omewbat closely to the matter, that the Mune com which yields our quartern loaves may be made to yield spirit, and beer, and vinegar, by particular processes ? Or that wine, cyder, beer, malt, fruit, sugar, and molasses, are all capable of yielding — and many of them are actu- ally made to yield, in manufacture — tliat very distinct and peculiar liquid, vinegar? These are remarkable instances of vegetable che- mistry, or of die change* which beat and other agents produce in veget- able substances. The foil explanation of all these changes fonns one of the most difficult branches of science ; but the manufacturing ar- rangements are capable of being described in a general manner, without involving the delicate and complicated reasonings of the chemical philosopher. Having, in connexion with the last two " visits," been enabled to describe the brewing and distilling processes and arrange- ments whereby beer and spirits are produced, we may now appro- priately notice in a similar manner the Vinegar-manufacture, It happens, too, that the firm who have liberally afforded the facilities for this purpose, viz., Messrs. Beaufoy of South Lambeth, are not only malt-vinegar makers, but also manufacturers of " Sweety" or as they are more generally termed "British Wines." Thus the same visit wHl enable u* to gather a little information respecting the production of wine.
The vinegv-manu&ctories are but few in number. There are reasons, applying to these establishments as well as to porter-breweries and distilleries, iriiy competition cannot be carried to so great an ex-
66
DAYS AT THK FACTORIES.
tent as in smaller undertakings. The '* plant," or assemblage of apparatus, is very costly, and the skill required in the manufacture considerable. In a Report presented by the Commissioners of Excise Inquiry a few years ago, it was stated that the number of yinegar- makers in the United Kingdom is forty -eight
Of the five principal vinegar-works in the metropolis, four are situ- ated on the Surrey side of the water. Messrs. Beaufoy's establishment formerly occupied the site of the present southern approach to Wa- terloo Bridge, and was removed thence to Vauxhall in consequence of the building of the bridge. The present works are located in South Lambeth, between Vauxhall and the Clapham Road, and occupy a con- siderable area of ground. In this, as in most other large works, the entrance gates open into a court-yard or area, portions of which are occupied by buildings wherein the manufacturing processes are car- ried on. Glancing along the left boundary of the court, we see, in the first place, an excise office, fitted up for the convenience of the officers always more or less in attendance at a vinegar-factory (as in distilleries, soap-works, glass-works, &c.) by whom the amount of duty accruing on the manufactured product is ascertained. Beyond this is the ' shipping department,' or counting-house for the manage- ment of all matters connected with the coasting trade and the reception of materials ; and in front is a weighing-machine. Adjacent to this is the ' chemical-room,' for the prosecution of experiments, and the analysis of liquids, arising out of or connected with the operations of the establishment. Ranges of stabling occupy a further portion of this line of buildings ; and the remainder consist of fermenting-rooms con- nected with the manufacture.
On the right of the court-yard are counting-houses and offices ; be- yond which the width of Uie court greatly increases. Immediately in front is the main building wherein the manufacture is carried on, and the successive stories of which exhibit a very varied assemblage of apparatus. Beginning at the top floor, we find this appropriated as store rooms, for the malt used in the vinegar manufacture, and the sugar and fruit for the wine manufacture. In various rooms and com- partments of the upper part of the building are machines for grinding and crushing malt, fruit, and sugar, and all the arrangements antece- dent to what we may term the chemical portions of the several pro- cesses. At a lower level we find, from the numerous pipes extending in all directions, that liquids are here brought to act upon the dry in-
I
A DAV AT A VINKGAH AND BWTISH.WINE FACTORY. 67
gredienti. Here, too, nro larg« coppers or boilers for hot water; mash-tuiiB, BimiUr to those used by brewers; and conduiu for liquida holh into and out of the^e veueU. On the gnmnd- floor the apparatus marks s still more advanced stage of ihe manufacture: here aro ' under- backs ' and ' jack-backs,' a refrigerator or cooling machine, a range of fcnncuting tuns, another range of winc-prcwiies, and other vessels and machinei pertaining to the two branches of manufactui^.
Beyond tliis building, which is known aa tlie * Brewliouse,' is another called the ' BU)veH,' or the ' stove- room,' kept carefully closed on all eide?, and brought to a considerable heat within, for tho furtherance of a very delicate part of the process of vinegar-making. Near this are buildings connected witli one or two iitiier branches of manufacture carried on by the same firm, which we shall not here notice further than to say ttiat Messrs. Beaufoy are also ' millers ' and ' drug -grinders.' f A detached building in n more remote part of tlie yard serves as a t«ture-houBe, the internal arrangements of which exhibit a specimen of D very careful and minute clnssifi cation. It is a feature in the esta- Iblisbment to make and repair on the premises as many of the imple- r nienta and apparatus employed as possible. Hence a coneidonible I quantity of materials is always in requisition ; and these nre under the |. especial control of a storekeeper. The wbolc of the buildings of the I fcctory are claasiiied into certain departments, each of which is placed r under distinct superintendeDce ; and the beails of the departmenla are r charged with the quantity of stores and materials supplied by the store- ITie weight and number of all stores supplied being entered I in a hook, as well as the department to which they are sujiplied, the I principals can thus at any time ascertain the amount of consumption in e department. Lead and colours, brushes and pots, for plumbers and painters; nails and screws, &c. for carpenters; hoop iron for coopers ; VHrious tools and implements for smiths — indeed materials and tools for half a dozen different trades, are here congregated. Fac- tory visitors may frequently notice this feature in large establishments, where a well-planned system of economy leads to the employment, within the factory, of a. number of artisans notdirectly concerned with the manufacture carried on. All this is regulated by a well-known principle in the division of labour, which can only bo developed where a large number of persons is employed.
Behind the store-house, and extending to a contiderBhle distance, is he vineijoT-Jivld, a remarkable feature in most vinegar- works. Here
68 DAYS AT THE FACTORIES.
the eye glances over many hundreds of casks, all ranged in parallel rows, and elevated to equal heights from the ground on wooden bars resting on brick piers. A pathway lies open between each pair of rows of casks ; and at intervals in these paths are openings or valves, forming channels of communication, to which we shall allude more par- ticularly hereafter.
Retumiilg from the vinegar-field, we find on the south side of the open court ^e workshops for the various artisans alluded to above, lliere is one shop for blacksmitlis, another for millwrights and engi- neers ; another for plumbers, a fourth for carpenters, a fifth for wheel- wrights. The cooperage is more extensive than any of ^ese, for all the casks employed in the vinegar and wine departments are both made and repaired within the premises. On the same side of the open court, but nearer to the entrance, are buildings more particularly connected with the staple manufacture of the place. One of tliese is called the Rape-shed, and is filled with numerous bulky vessels in which the finishing processes of the vinegar-manufacture are carried on ; so bulky, indeed, that some of them admit of comparison witli the giant vats at Barclay's brewery. Another of these buildings is the ' sending-out warehouse,' where the vinegar, after the completion of the manufacture, is consigned to store- vats ranged round the wall, and thence drawn off into casks for sale. The interior of tliis building is represented in Fig. 1. A somewhat similar building is the wine store trareAoiiJKf, where the British wines are stored and drawn into casks.
We may finish our tour of Uie premises by remarking that the water required for the establishment is furnished by an Artesian well ; and that there are three steam-engines for pumping the water, pumping the liquids in various stages of preparation from one vessel to another, grinding the malt, &c. There is a range of waggon -sheds too ; and two fire-engines for the protection of Uie premises. The large open areas of the court and the vinegar-field, with tlie various buildings sur- rounding them, together occupy about eight acres.
It may now be well, in attempting to describe the operations carried on in these buildings, to keep them wholly separate, and to offer what we have to say concerning vinegar, before we speak of Britbh wine.
A DAY AT A VINBGAR AKD BRITISH-WINB FACTORY. «9
Thb Vinsgar Manufacture.
At the beginning of this paper it was stated that vinegar nay be produced from many substances apparently wholly dissimilar. It is not only that they mat/ be, but they are so in practice ; for one mana- ftcturer uses one ingredient, one another. Messrs. Beaufoy's is a moA-vinegar factory, where the vinegar is produced from precisely the same substance as that whence the Highlander makes his whiskey. Hie theory of fermentation itione of the most refined points of scientific in- vestigation ; but it may he remarked, as a general cine to the apparent discrepancies in the materials of the vinegar manufacture, that alcohol, or spirit, u capable of being distilled from sugar, from fruit, from grain, and other vegetable anbetances ; and that whatever yields spirit, may aUo be made to yield vinegar, by a different mode of procedure, indeed the acetous fermentation, whereby vinegar is produced, follows very closely on the vinous, whereby spirit results ; and it is often difScult to stop at the one and prevent the occurrence of the other. "When we hear of ' sour ' beer or ' sour ' wine, we may regard these as instances that the acetous fermentation has commenced, or that our beer or wine actually contains some vinegar; indeed the French name vin aigre (sour wine) points significantly to one source whence the acid is produced.
Dismissing any discussion of the question why one manu&ctorer selects one ingredient and one another, we proceed to the details of tbe malt-vinegar manufacture, as exemplifying most of the principles involved.
What constitutes malt is pretty generally known, and has been before alluded to ; but it may be added here, that the process of malt- ing changes the character of the grain by converting some of the starch contained in the barley into sugar, and facilitating the similar con- version of a fnrther portion, lliis conversion into sugar, called the " ' saccharine fermentation,' is one of the important steps in the prepara- tion of beer, of ale, of whiskey, and of malt-vinegar -. in all of these it is requisite that the starch of the grain be converted into a kind of sugar ; for it b from this sugar that the vinous fermentation jnvduces alcohol, the parent of vinegar. Hence the early processes in an ale- brewery, a malt-distillery, attd a malt-vinegar factory are very similar.
The malt is brought- to the vinegar-works which we are describing, and hanled up out of the waggons into the upper floors of lie brew- house. Here openings placed in different directions allow the malt to
70 DAYS AT THE FACTORIES.
be pourwl down into large bins, from whence it is removed when a brewing is about to take place. (Vinegar- makers atid distiller*, aa well as ale and beer brewers, give the name of ■ brewing ' to the ex- traction of a tncckarino licjuor from malt) Tlic quantity required for one brewing being measured out, and taken from the bins in sacks, >t is poured tJirough ' hoppers," or funnels at tlic lop of tlie grinding apparatus, whereby the malt is reduced to meal, Tlie apparatus con- ■iats of both the kinds used for such purposes, viz. mill-stonee and crtishiog-rollers, either or botli of which can be employed ax maj be deemed best. In the one case a flat circular stone rotates and crushes beneath it the malt which flows between it and a lower lixed stone. In the o^er case the malt, aAcr flowing throttgh a shoot or trunk from the hopper, falls on a wire gyrating, where it becomes 5cparat«d from any impurities with which it may be mixed ; and it then passes between two cast-iron rollers rotating nearly in contact, whereby it is crushed to fragment. An ingenious contrivance, invented by Captain Huddarl, is adopted for yielding to any hard substance which may enter between the rollers with the malt, without injury to the ap- paratus ; it acta on tlie principle of stopping tlie revolution of the roller altogether until the cause of obstruction is removed.
When the malt is crushed or ground, it falls tlirough a hose or trunk into the maah-tuns in the Hoor beneath. These maah'tuns ale similar in principle to those used at the great hrewerles and distilleriea, but smaller in size. They are circular vessels with a central 'stirrer,* or instrument for keeping in constant agitation the ingredients which may be in the tuns ; the stirrer being worked by a ateam-cngine. It is in these vessels that the ' saccharine fermentation ' goes on, or the extraction, by tlie action of hot water, of a sweet or mawkish "sub- stance from the malt. It is tliis sweet principle which subsequently yields to the brewer his beer or ale, to the distiller his spirit, and to the vinegar-maker his vinegar; and it liiay well \k supposed that every precaution is taken, and every investigation made as to the ex- traction of the greatest quantity and the most fitting quality of this important agent. The quantity of water refjuired with a given quantity of malt, and the temperature at which tlie water is used, vary in each particular branch of manufacture, according to the strength of the ' wort ' ri^quired. The arrangements at Messrs. Beaufoy's for adjusting these elemenla ai'e very exact and ingenious. The hot water is let down upon the malt in the mash-tun when at the proper temper-
I
A DAY AT A VINEGAR AND BRlTISH-WlNE FACTORY
niid in order lo adjust t}iig, tlii? foreman of the brewhnuae as- :, by the aid of h thermomeier, the temperature of the water, through a temporary opening in the upper part of the boiler. The arrangements at this spot are shown in Pig. 2, where is also represented
e-weight and gTBdunted scale, wliicli, aided hy a float on (}ie surface of tlie liquid in the copper, indicates the number of indies depth of water therein.
Wlieii the wnter has acted on the malt for a certain period, and teen conBttuilIy Biirred with it, the liquor receives the name of kotI, knd is allowed to flow through pipes out of the niasli-tura into a Inrge ratt-iron tank or 'underbaek,' measuring probably twenty-four feet in length, by eight in width. This is merely a general rece])tacle for the wort, into which tbi; latter is collected when the mashing is completed. Then ensues the process of cooling, one which exhibits many remark- able differences ns effected in different establishments. In the descrip-
7S DAYS AT THE FACTORIBS.
tioni of a great brewery and of a distillery, we had to speak of large, open, shallow, airy rooms, called ^ coolers,' or ^ cooling-floors,* whereon the wort was poured in a thin layer to be cooled by the access of air on all sides. Such was formerly the mode adopted at the vinegar- works now under description ; a surface of nearly twenty-three hun- dred square feet having been appropriated to this purpose. This mode has, however, been superseded by anoUicr, in which one hundred square feet of surface is made to yield the effects formerly wrought by more than twenty times that extent. There is a vessel now employed for this purpose called a ' refrigerator,' which acts on the following principle : — The hot wort is allowed to flow out of the underback into an oblong vessel, and out of this latter into another receptacle in the same part of the building. A continuous pipe, between three and four hundred feet in length, passes backwards and forwards through the ob- long vessel, and through this pipe cold water is continually flowing from an Artesian well two hundred feet deep. Tliere is a constant current of wort from cast to west through the vessel, and a constant current of water flowing from west to east through tlie pipe ; and it is not difficult to see Uiat this must have a tendency to cool the wort. There are four adjustments by whicli the wort may be made to leave the refrigerator at any desired temperature, viz., increasing or decreasing the rapidity of the entrance of the wort, the exit of the wort, tlie entrance of the water, and Uie exit of the water. As the cold water travels onward through the convoluted pipe, it abstracts heat from the surrounding wort : when the water flows quickly, the wort is cooled to a lower temperature than when it flows more slowly ;• and by a simultaneous adjustment of the valves connected with the wort vessel, tlie flow of the wort can be also duly regulated. Fig. 3 represents the re- frigerator, at the end where the wort enters, and where the water leaves the pipe after having performed its office ; by the side of the refrigerator is seen the * underback.' Not only does this method re- quire much less room than that of the * cooling-floors,' but the time employed in cooling a given quantity of wort is reduced to one-third, and the manufacturer is rendered independent of fluctuations of the weather ; for, unlike atmospheric agency, his cooling agent is brought from a source two hundred feet below the level of the ground, and is nearly equable in temperature at all times. It may be as well to remark that this method of cooling is the reverse of that adopted in the worm-tub of a distillery : in this latter case the hot liquid, or rather
A DAV AT A VINEGAB ASU UBITlSH-VflNE FACTOIIV.
UaduUek tnil BifileemtoT.— F[|. 3
I vftpour, fasa&s through the pipe contained I vat«r flows through the vessel ilGelf; hut
c colli water passes through the pipe, and tlie hot liijuid through thi I ppen vessel. The distiller's worm ia not, in /act, a refrigeraitrr, it is mdenser ; and the condensed vapour must not be open to the
the vessel, and the c vinegar refrigerator
lie reader wJU hear in mind that the wort thus produced is in ciple precisely the same as that made by the ale and beer brewer ind tiie distiller, differing only in saccharine strength. It undergoes, same process of fermentation, subject to those limitations which may be retjuired by the nature of the manufacture. From the Bjefrigerator which we have just described, the (woled wort flows into k large circular receptacle sunk in the ground, called the 'jack-back,' a wliich it is pumped up into ' fermenting-tunfi.' Here we may lark, that a valuable system of combination or centralization ia Observed in the arrangement of the conducting pipes in this establish- There are here and there large vessels which serve as a kind «f centre, from each of which openings lead to several other vessel*.
^ »Ar« AT TBK r JCTOBIDI.
#uKMtr.fc3iH#(» vv mrtr ov^'pier ; j<c 'juet^ zrn zfX taree ipipnw^i frooi the putdd^^^ym^M. fni^ 'aejiam 4t&mct yifyms^ hnz oce, vtidk Eca^ fi» a three- fturfiitC^ ^mv^ 'm^Mf: fca^TtLf wr marMi jet^wedietj *'taamj *- back,* "€1^^^^!^ f v» due T/r 'jtn^m^ otut of oiree harrfkrt, tb? liqoM can be 4t^nT>^4ii v^ ^.«Me "A rxjo^ rtomteiM. Az%^* tLe huA jwc ^aded to k ^iiMAit ;x\ er««wY»Ki v^iih vrreRkl large jetmsU in di&rcot parts of the yi«MmaM«r s^ ^>aEi7 ^jcjc 'A viu^ ia o&fxccnu can be tnuliRTed br simplT t^/fttA^ ^ iumAl^ Tbefe ai <3ce of tLe boililiii^ in vhich a hexagonal iHAMr iii Me&r f^BCAitT the h^ or «ariSKe of which are fix valrca. or eoeki, nH 'V^^nuf'i a&ri <ivn2 ^^ or>? k^. Each oce U niscrlbed with the came *4 ^M6^. 'J^jk ^u^/inhtr Te«Mri or hail^iirg. whh vLich it is placed in <tiv*ii!urz>^» '*jr XT. ^zz^tJtir^ «eri« of ^irjbtT^jtirA pi?e»; ar.d the «iv^«tr';AO(n«t^it^ of ^*u tmail pt^ite of ftpparmtm car ir. &ct conlr\4 the §ti-/w of fJwr i>f*J/i ^iM-yi^r vrjUi'itkf:*Tm in almost ^prerj •i:recti*>n. The Wy«r»fjm.'« 'VTi^y^ frryf.o ik/iM t:;,*!ihrA &re fucL as generallj rvsolt froci a ^^.ir. ^4 ^jn.fjr*iiXi(U//ti w£± cUaiiflcari'/n.
Yo '^^siKrnf^ w^iat g'j>et c^ in tfje ftnueriting-tuns is no easr matter, ai tf Mr) '/(>«• t^>t Ittzi^nrAertUjod proceu of the vinoos fermeotatioii. 'IW li»r*w*f , the diji<M0ir^ and the rinegar- maker alike expo4e the watt U0 Omt i^mta^. of 7«)ut «ru«l an eltrv^tM temperature ; but thej require if^cry ^ffUfrfA 'i^gree* of the alc/^^i^/Iic development. The brewer, wt^* k.4 w^/rt ^MM ft^rroer^tedy gire« the name of beer or a/e to the pro- ^f*^^ M^JifffAtt^ %j* ^jt KfucnipilatKin of manufacture; the distiller calls ^ UrmiititM wort \fj the name of ttoj/k ; while the vinegar^maker if^'um ikm wkm^ '4 ^U v» the fermented wort which he uses. It is if*rfj pffffi^ tioA distinct names should be thus used (although thoae SifrtMalf jr t^tt^ty^ tmlj seem somewhat Unmeaning) ; for the liquids Sf* >/y ft^t mtmrn tl^ vacrte, slt>iough all alike produced by vinous fcr- $t$iffHMi\^m fffffn sweet wort.
Th* UsffnttnUni w^/rt, or, as we shall now term it, the gyU^ is trans- fteff§sA ffirtu- tlie fermeming'tuns u> other vessels, where it leaves a Ai^wmi fir sediment, which u a kind of acetous yeast ; and being thence allorwed Ut (UfW inUt the jack-back, it is pumped up one of the branchea of th^ tliree^barrelled pump into the large vat above. From this, as a centre, the gyle is allowed to flow into casks, where it assumes the
A DAY AT A VINEGAR AND BRITISH WINE-PACTORV. 7S
form of vinegar, a proceaa which ia in ever; respect remuluible. The change here indicated ia brought about in two methodi exceedingly opposite in tbeir general character. In the one case the caslu con- taining the gyle are placed in close rooms heated to a high tempera- ture i in the other thej are ranged in rows in an open field, where they remtkin many months. Different as these methods seem to be, yet the effect produced is precisely the same, viz. the conversion of the gyle into vinegar by the internal process of acetiGcation, In what manner the oxygen of the air and the heat of the stove-rooms work this change, is as much a chemical difficulty aa the process of fermentation gene- rally. As regards the convenience and interests of the manufacturer, both methods seem to have their advantages ; for at the vinegar-works which we are describing both are followed, although the one occupies a very much longer period of time than the other. When the vinegar is to be acetified in the field, it roust be made during the three spring months, and then left several months in the Geld.
This process of acetification is technically called 'stoving,' or 'field- ing,' according to the method followed. In the first- mentioned case, the casks containing the gyle are arranged conveniently in three stove- rooms, which are closed and locked, and then exposed to a certain tem- perature till the acetification has been wrought Two minutes' stay in one of these rooms is quite sufficient to convince a visitor that vinegar is in the act of formation, the suffocating acetous vapour being insupportable. The method of stoving is, we believe, generally adopted by the vinegar-makers of France, and appears to render the manufacturer more independent of the seasons than the field process.
The process of ' fielding ' is much more visible, if we may use such a term, than that of ' stoving,' from the circumstances under which it is conducted. The casks, each of which contains rather more than a hundred gallons, are arranged in long parallel tiers, with their bung' holes open and uppermost Beneath some of the paths which separate the rows of casks are pipes, communicating with the ' back ' at the top of the brewhouse; and in the centre of each of these paths is a valve or cock opening into the concealed pipe. When the casks are about to be filled, a flexible hose is screwed on to this valvular open- ing, the other end of the hose being inserted in the bung-hole of the cask. Then, as the reservoir of gyle is many feet above the level of the casks, the liquid flows by ita own pressure through the underlying pipe and the hose into the cask. A man guides the hose in the manner
DAI'S AT TDK rACTOBIBS.
ri^prfrsentml in Yig. 4, and hm (iiffiRiitnt length of hose to fill ^1 t ciuka in oni* row, one after Another.
Here the vinrgnr remaini" fiir wvornl weeki, or even monthf, t{ bung-hoIe« of the caaki beinp; covrrnl with •mall pimesof tileord which are removed when t!ip wenlher ia fine. The ciwk* are vutninaj twice eveij day ; urtA if it hupprns thftt n (hower of r»in come* on m denly while the bung-hole« atv exposed, ncnrly nil thi- hftncb in vinegar ilt^pnrtinvnt are ' turned out,* lo cover the cmIi* m ipeediiy li pomihle. The air cffnct* the lome object u Uie heat of the « room», but much more »lowIy. In both ema the gylr, or fcp mented wort, undergoe* tlie procew of ace till cation, whereby it I comeii converted into vinegar. I" thtisn factorieB wliere tlie vinegl ia produced from other aabalnnccs than malt, Uic gyle ia converted inl vinegar ncnrly In the aame way aa in the present case, altbougb ti gyle itself i« diiferenlly produced.
Wlicn the ■ fielding ' ia conipleted and the vinegar ii to be from the caika, the arrangementa are managed in a very itigrnitn manner. A long trough or Bho<it is laid by tJie side of o rows of caske, into which tlie vinegar is transferred by m eyphon, the shorter leg of which ii inMrteil in the bung-hole of U caak. The trough inclines a litUe iVom one end to th« otlier, the lowi end resting on a kind of tntvdUng tank or ciatam ; *o tliat tlie vinej
leveml casks is collected in
le tank. Prom ihe tank a hose
-eentis to the valve placed in the
■riunil, atii! the vinegfir is drawrit
. stenm power in the adjacent
lildings, from the tank into the
i.'e, from thence into the valve,
and then along an iinderground
which terminates in one of
factory buildings. Thus the
mtivbg-power la mnde
otF all the vinegar frani
all the casks in succession. A
portion of this operation ia here
■esented.
vinegar, so far as ace-
■cation is concerned, is now
, bnt l)iere is a rerlAin
rifying nr cleanBliig retiuired
c it aSBumes a marketable
This purifying is, liow-
not always done immedi-
; I)ut the vinegar Is pumped
the casks intu a ' back of
Bimunicntion,' a centre from
i pipes conduct the liquid
• a number of store-vats placed
frthc * vat-warehouse.*
•TVlien the vinegar is lo be
r 'brightened' for sale,
ftii pumped from the store-vata
I vessels which arc in some
s the most remarkable eni-
loyed in the vinegar manufac-
r rather the clarifying in-
)dient i? a remarkable one. In
e-shed ' are the enormous
joden vessels before alluded lo,
n by the name of rape*,'
78 DAYS AT THE FACTORIBS.
each of which b filled witli a filtering ingredient also called * rape.' This double employment of the same word seems rather absurd; but it is probable that the 'rape-vessels,' or the vessels containing
* rape,' were called * rapes ' for the sake of brevity ; and for the origin of the name itself we may perhaps refer to the French word
* raffe,* connected with the process of ' rafiinerie,' or refining. Leaving etymology out of the question, however, we may state that this rape con- sists of raisin stcUkt ami skinsj which are said to filter the vinegar bet- ter than any other substance hitherto employed. It would seem pretty evident that it is not a mere filtration which the vinegar undergoes, but that in percolating over and over again through the rape^ it im- bibes some quality which it did not possess before. Sometimes wood- shavings, sometimes straw, and sometimes tanners' spent bark, is employed as tlie filtering ingredient ; but the refuse of raisins which have been employed in making wine is preferred to every other ma- terial. It is a matter of immense difficulty to collect the necessary quantity of this material to fill the bulky vessels ; and when once collected, we believe there is no part of the vinegar-maker's apparatus on which he places so much value. We shall have a few further details to offer on this subject in a future page.
Each ' rape,' or filtering-vessel, is fitted with a false bottom, on which the filtering medium is placed. Beneath this false bottom, and above the true bottom, is inserted a cock, which allows the vinegar to flow into a back or cistern. From this cistern a pump elevates the liquid to the top of the vessel, and hence ensues a very curious circuit ; the vessel is filled up with vinegar, which filtrates through the raisin-refuse into tlie space beneath, thence into the tank, thence through the pump to the top of the vessel, to recommence its circuit. Over and over again does tliis circuit proceed, the pump being kept constantly at work, and the vinegar incessantly in motion. If such a comparison might be permitted, we would liken the pump to a lieart, which pro- pels the liquid to tlie enormous lung — the rape — where it is purified, and then again returned to the heart, llie filtering substance gra- dually, but very slowly, wastes away, and is renewed from time to time.
The vinegar by this process becomes transparent, or * bright,' as it is technically termed, and is tlien pumped from the rapes into store- vats, where it \b kept till required to be put into casks for sale ; and the rapes are immediately filled up with an equivalent portion of freah
A DAY AT A TINEQAR AND BRITISH-WINE FACTORY. 79
vinegar, so as never to leave the raisin -re fuse idle. The vinegnr-casks hold one hundred and sixteen, 6ily, and twenty-five gallons respec- tively. Each cask is examined and gauged before being brought into the *eending-out warehouse,' to see that it is sound and of proper di- mensions. The warehouse b a large room lined on all sides by store- vats, from which the casks are filled ; and on the days when these casks are to be sent off, the warehouse presents a very busy appearance, with coopers, porters, &c. ranging the casks, marking them, and con- signing them to the waggons.
With a few miscellaneous remarks on' vinegar we must peas on to the other object of our ' visit.' Vinegar is known by certain numbers, such as No. 18, 20, 22, and 24. These originally represented the number of pence per gallon at which the vinegar was sold ; and although the price no longer accords with these immbers, the numbers themselves have been retained as symbols whereby a certain quality of . vinegar may be knovm and designated. Vinegar pays to government a duty of 2rf. for every gallon of 'proof;' proof being deemed that de- gree of strength which contains five per cent, of pure acetic acid, as ascertained by an instrument called an * acetometer,' which acts on the principle of determining the specific gravity of the vinegar when saturated with hydrate of lime, and deducing the acetic strength there- from. Vinegar varies considenibly in its strength under different cir- cumstances, and the duty paid always bears a strict relation to the strength i thus, if the quantity of pure acid in a gallon of vinegar be double ' proof,' then it pays double duty, or 4d. per gallon ; and so on. The strength of vinegar is more difficult to ascertain than that of spirit, for there is a kind of mucilage or extractive matter in it which increases its specific gravity, and which is very different in quantity at different times. Hence a given specific gravity will not, as in spirit, indicate the strength ; and the test employed is the specific gravity after it has been saturated with hydrate of time. Up to the year 1834 there were seventy-seven thousand dealers in vinegar in Great Britain, every one of whom was visited once a month by the Excise, to see that he conformed to certain regulations, such as to make an entry of his premises, and not to send out any quantity of vinegar exceeding ten gallons without a certificate from a book provided by the Excise. The expense of thus making nearly a million visits in a year, and the utter useleamess of the system, led to its abandonment in 1834, on the KCommendalion of Uie Commissioners of Excise Inquiry. The quan-
k2
90 DAYS AT THK FACTORIK&
tity of vinegar made in the British Islandi i« about three million gal- lons a year, of which more than half is made by four London firms*
British Wikes, or 'Swebts,*
The use of British wines, or, as they are sometimes called, * hom»> made wines,* is of very limited extent ; and it may perhaps hardly have occurred to the reader that the manufacture is carried on on any- thing like a considerable scale. Such is, indeed, the fact at the present day ; but still there are circumstances attending the rise and growth of this branch of trade too curious to be passed unnoticed.
It is perhaps pretty generally known that nearly all foreign winee are made from the juice of the ripe grape, and that the variations in quality and appearance depend partly on the species of grape, partly on the soil where it is cultivated, partly on the state of the climate, and partly on the method of vintage. British wines, however, are made either from dried grapes, which come to us under the name of raisinif or from common English fruits. At first the name of 'sweets' was confined principally to the varieties of raisin- wine ; but as English- fruit wine was equally subjected to duty, all alike acquired the name of ' sweets.' The Excise definition of sweets is, ** all liquors made by infusion, fermentation, or otherwise, from fruit or sugar, or fruit and sugar mixed with other materials ;" and until 1834, any i)er8on who had any such liquor in his custody, in quantity exceeding one hun- dred gallons, was deemed a maker of sweets fur sale, and subject to Excise survey.
The rise of the British-wine trade was closely connected with the vinegar manufacture, and dates back to about a century ago. At that time — as Hogarth's print of * Gin Lane,' and many other sources of information, amply attest — the scenes of drunkenness witnessed in the metropolis had reached a fearful extent. The legislature endeavoured by various means to give a turn to the public taste that might lessen the evil ; and among other things they held out strong inducementa for the manufacture of sweets, or home-made wines, for sale. For many years, however, although sweets had been reckoned among ex- ciseable articles ever since 1696, the manufacture continued utterly insignificant.
It happened about that time that Mark Beaufoy, a member of the Society of Friends at Bristol, who had abandoned his original trade of a distiller from conscientious scruples, arising out of the prevailing
A DAY AT A VINEGAR AND BIttTlSH-WINB FACTORY. II
vice of the times, went to Hollarid to learn the process of malt-vinegar making ; and on his return eatablishfed a vinegar-factor? on the site of the once-celebrated Cvper't Garden*, near the present southern end of Waterloo Bridge. The works grew in extent and in fame, and were visited many years afterwards by Pennant, who in his ' London ' gives the following paragraph: — "There is a magnificence of business in this ocean of sweets and sours, that cannot fail exciting the greatest admiration, whether we consider the number of vessels or their size. The boasted tun at Heidelberg does not surpass these. On first en- tering the yard, two rise before you, covered at the top with a thatched dome ; between them is a circular turret, including a winding stair- case, which brings you to their summits, above twenty-four feet in diameter. One of these conservatories is full of sweet wine, and con- tains fifty-eight thousand one hundred and nine gallons, or eighteen hundred and fifteen barrels, of Winchester measure : its superb asso- ciate is full of vinegar, to the amount of fifty-sis thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine gallons." The casks and hogsheads seemed to Pennant so minute after these, that lie " imagined he could quaff them off as easily as Gulliver did the little hogsheads of the kingdom of Idlliput*"
But to return to the 'sweets.' Mark Beaufoy, in the endeavour to establish a malt-vinegar factory, had to encounter a great difficulty, viz. the want of 'ra/Dd' wherewith to construct the filters to fine and flavour the vinegar. In Holland the vinegar-mak^rs were supplied with the refuse from the raisin-wine manufacturers and raisin-wort distillers; but in England there was no source of the kind whence he could he supplied, and yet such a supply was indispensably necessary to the success of the process on the Dutch method. Under these cir- cumstances he was constrained to purchase raisins, and after steeping them for the purpose of extracting the saccharine and mucilage of the fruit, the liquor was thrown away, and the rape alone (comprising all the solid parts of the raisinj reserved for use in the vinegar manufac- ture.
It happened, however, that Dr. Fothergill, the Quaker physician,
* Pennant'i ■ Londari,' 3rd edit., p. 31. Wilkli«>n, loo, at a later date, gare > lepmrnlation aixl description of thwe premltt*, ia the 'Loiidiii'i llIiiitimtB,' u Ihey appnred btfon tin natoiai of tbe Hhiblithmcnt to Soulh Lunbetb in 1812, coiueqiient mi the prepantioni foi making Ilie MQlbem approach to WBtailoo Bridge.
n DAYS AT THR PACT0R1B&
became acqiuunted with this waste of raiiin-juice, and, after demon- strating how wine might be made from it, advised Mark Beaufoj to commence it as a branch of manufacture. He did so, and entered his name at the Excise as a '* maker of sweets," about a century ago. From that time, owing partly to the spur which one branch of manu* facture thus gave to anotlier, and partly to a wish in many quarters to substitute a milder drink for that which had produced such social evils, tlie raisin-wine trade rose into distinction and importance. The kinds of raitiins he used were principally Smymas, Malagas, Lexifs, Faros, and Cape de Verds ; but in later years the manufacturers of sweets included the English freeh fruits among the materials whence thej produced wine. For forty years tlic trade gradually extended ; but in 1 784 the minister of the day adopted a course which most seriously shook and injured it : this was by enacting that no dealer or vendor of Foreign wines should be allowed to have any British wines upon his premises or in his possession; the two trades (of vendors, but not makers) having hitherto been considered and conducted as one. This enactment arose out of certain excise regulations concerning foreign wines ; but its effect on the sale of British wines was most marked. In the year ending 5th July, 1784, previous to the new regulation coming into force, the duty charged upon sweets, in the London district only, was for 7000 barrels made by the firm of Bcnufoy and Co., and about an equal quantity by the other makers who had by degrees entered the trade ; whereas in the following year the quantity was only 241 bar* rels ! The new act completely annihilated all the dealers, so far as this article was concerned, by rendering them obnoxious to heavy penal- ties ; and the manufacturers had new connections to seek for vending their produce. The blow once given was never wholly recovered ; for though the firm mentioned above paid nearly 10,000/. duty in 1813 on British wines, being the largest ever paid by one house in one year, yet the trade on the whole progressively declined, and was still further injured by the reduction of the duty on Cape wines some years ago. At length, by the year 1834, the duty became go small, — amounting to less than 3000/. per annum for the whole of the British islands,-* that the Commissioners of Excise Inquiry recommended it to be abo- lished altogether, as not worth the trouble and expense of collecting. British wines, therefore, are not now an exciseable article ; and there will not in future be data whereby to judge whether the manufacture increases or diminishes.
A DAY AT A VINBGAR AND BSITISH-WINE FACTOHY. 83
Aa & notable branch ot trade, ve maj tbos coiutder-that theBriUsh- wine manufacture has gone through the phages of riie, zenith, uid fall within about t, century, although it may perhap* happen that the removal of the duty will give another impulse to it. It will still con- tinue to be an interesting, though not an extensive branch of English manufacture; and those who are not so well provided with the good things of life as to have the real juice of the grape at their table will probably stilt, to some extent, look to a substitute leas costiy than foreign wine and less injurious than ardent spirits.
The manufacture of 'sweets' is one partaking of fewer processes than that of vinegar, and may be described without much difficulty. If we take the term 'sweets* in its fullest extent, so as to include all the varieties of British wine, then we shall at once state that the only variety claiming description here is that of ramn-\cine, lo which the manufacture was in the first instance confinod. All the kinds made from English fruits, such as ' currant- wine,' ' raspberry- wine,' ' elder- wine,' Ac., are such household acquaintances, that we need not trace their birth and parentage; every 'Cook's Oracle,' and 'Complete Housewife,' and 'Kitchen Manual,' and 'Useful Receipt Book,' and ' Guide to Service,' teaches us how to make these wines ; and the diflermce between their methods, and the mode pursued by those who make the wines for sale, lies rather in the quantity operated on, and the size of the vessels, than in the routine of processes, ~ Let us then glance at the method of making the wines from foreign dried fruits, ss practised at this establishment.
The dried fruits or raisins (frequently, but erroneously, called plwni) which result from the different kinds of grape, do not lose all the vinouB quality of the fresh fruit, although much seems to be lost in the process of drying. Nearly all the grapes thua prepared are brought from the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, and ere generally named either from the places where they are produced, or those whence they are imported; but in some cases, such as 'muscatels,' 'blooms,' 'sultanas,' 'raisins of the sun,' and 'lexias,' the name is derived from the quality of grape or the mode of preparation. The most simple mode of preparation in the grape-countries is to dry the fruit, after being cut when fully ripe, by exposure to the heat of the sun on a floor of hard earth or stone. Another method is to cut the stalk half- way through when the grapes are nearly ripe, and leave them sus- pended till the watery part is evaporated ; the flow of sap is in a great
84
DAYS AT TUB FACTORIES.
measure prevented from entering the fruit, in consequence of the incision ; and whilst evaporation continues to go on undiminished, the grape necessarily becomes dried. Some sorts are prepared hj dipjHng the grapes in a ley, and afterwards drying them in the sun, the ley being formed of water, wood-ashes, and a small portion of oil of olives. Inferior raisins are dried by the artificial heat of an oven.
The raisins acquire very different qualities according to these modes of treatment ; but the wine prepared from them by the British manu- facturer of ' sweets ' may be spoken of in general terms, without refer- ence to specific differences, further than to say that the ' Lezias ' pro- duce a dry wine, the * Denite ' a sweet wine, the *" Black Smymas ' a strong-bodied wine, and the * Red Smymas ' and ' Valencias ' a rich and full wine. The time when the importer lays in his store of dried fruit is from Michaelmas to Christmas ; and from thence to spring, or in ehort during the cool weather, is the principal time for making the wine.
The fruit comes into the hands of the wine-maker in three different kinds of packages— baskets, casks, and boxes — according to the quality of the fruit ; but in general tlie raisins are packed closely together, and form a hard mass. These masses arc in the first instance laid on a floor and beaten with wooden mallets, as a means of separating the raisins one from another. Sometimes the agglomeration is so close, that the mass has to be passed between rollers before the separation can be effected. The separate raisins — or rather the small masses, for the individual separation is not yet effected — are stcepetl in a vessel with a quantity of water, where they stand until all the fruit, by being swelled with the water, rises up and floats on the surface.
When the fruit has risen to the surface of the water, a portion of the latter is drawn from the vessel, by which the mass of fruit necessarily sinks to a lower level. A perforated board or floor is then laid on the top of the fruit in the vessel, and kept down by a weight; and upon this is pumped the liquor which had been previously drawn from the vessel. As the weight keeps the board down, and the board keeps the fruit down, it follows that the fruit has a body of liquid above as well as below it ; while the perforations in the board allow the liquid to percolate through to the fruit. This process is repeated from time to time, by drawing off the liquid from beneath the fruit, and pouring it in above, by which all parts of the fruit become equally affected. The extraction which is brought about during this process
A DAY AT A TWBCAH AHD (IBITISH-WINE FACTORY. M roHably begins at the moment wlion the fruit lina lightness cnutigh tu 1 llie surface of the liquid, anil uonliiiues throughout the
LI all the vinous and saccharine matter* have b"cn extracted
n tniit hy this process, the lifjuiil k (lrB\m off itilo separate
The fruit, however, is not wholly cxlmustml by this drawing-
■, for a consUerahle portion of the lifjuid is absorbed by iind mixed
ftp amonp the spent fruit. To recover this is a point of importajice ;
iMid the itetion oF pressure is here bnnight into rBfjuisition. In nne of
th(^ riiome of the factory is a powerful hydrntilic press, and bUo n
range of screw-presses, the former or the latter being used accord-
; Id circumstances, Ftg. 6 represents one of these presses while
iiip worked, by which it will be seen that considwKlde power is
plied. Each press consists of a kind of cubinal ho», two or tlirec
it equare, into whi<!h a strong square board or preascr works, being
tchfld to a screw above, and the screw being turned by capstans. In'
nslance a man gets into one of tlie steeping-tuna, ami lades
kit the spent fruit into bsakeU, which are cturied ii> llie pres»-boxea
W DAYS AT THE FACTOHIES.
uid there thrown in until the box \e full. A powerful iron bar ia inserted in a hole in the screw-shaft, and is then used, cnpstMii-like, to turn the screw and press the fruit, half a dozen men being thui em- ployed. Sometimes the aid of a powerful windlaia ia employed to turn the screw ; and the pressure thus exerti^d U so great as to reduce the fruit to one-third of its former bulk.
The liquid which is thus obtained is added to that which was dramt oCF from the steeping- vessels ; while the spent fruit, now pressed almost dry, is BO far from being valueless, that it constitutes the article rape, BO important to the proceedings of the vinegar manufacturer. Tb* steeping is not the only process which is carried on in the large vesseb; for afler the fruit has been moistened and the saccharine quali" " tracted, a kind of fermentation ia induced by a leaven or yeast contained in the fruit itself; and it is principally to regulate this fermentation that the liquid is passed so frequently through the mass of fruit. In fact the liquid which is drawn off from the vessels is not merely raisin extract or juice — it is wine in a crude state.
The wine ia pumped from the fermenting-tuns bto other veasels in the ' wine store- warehouse,' — a large building lined on every side with vats, tuns, and casks of various sizes. Here it is subjected to repeated ' rackings,' by which everything that is capable of being precijiitalcd ia separated from it and falls to the bottom of the vessels. Here, too, all the processes of sweetening, and ' fining ' with isinglass, 4c., accord- ing to the different kinds of wine, are carried on, until the wine assume* the form in which it is sold. It is stored in vats, from whivh it is drawn into casks for sale to the dealers. There ia no ' WtlUng ' depBrt- ment at this factory, the wine behig Bold ' in the wood ;' and the dealer separatea it into the snialler portions which find their way into th« hands of the consumer.
Here we take our leave of this region of aweets and sours. The connection existing between these two branchea of manufacture, botlk' in history and in practice, has rendered it advantageous to treat OT) them both in one article ; and the firm to which the foregoing detailst relate is the only single one which affords facilities for so doing.
nedV
v.— A DAY AT A SUGAR-BEFINERY.
If it were allowable to personify the East and Weal enda of London, we might consider them as strangers who hare occasionally heard of each other's existence, but who, from the wide interval between them, have had little mutual acquaintance. The dweller at the ' Court end ' of the town maj, perhaps, have heard of ' Aldgate Pump,' as a spot remotelj east, beyond the regions of the Bank, the Exchange, and the Mansion-House; and may, without the aid of a map, be in some doubt as to what exists still farther eastward. But he who would form an adequate idea of the metropolis in all its length and breadth, must be prepared to hear of a vast population, — a very world of human beings, — beyond the point to which we allude.
It is to this eastem district, and to one particular part of it, that we beg to direct the reader's attention in the present article. Most persons have heard of the occupation of a Sugar-refiner, — often, though erroneously, termed Sugar-baker, — that is, one who prepares the white conical lumps or loaves of crystallized sugar iamiliarly known as ' loaf-sugar,' Now, the buildings or ' reGneries ' in which this operation is carried on are not only situated in the ea«t of London, hat most of them are congregated within a circle of half a mile radius immediately eastward of Aldgate. Those who would seek for a reason why K> many members of one trade or manufacture settle near each other, may be reminded that Oriental bazaars exemplify this custom to a renurkable extent, and that the object i> principally to afford fitcUitiea to purchasers. At Constantinople, Bagdad, and other Eastern cities, each of the principal trades has its own bazaar, — one for jewel- lery, one for silks, one for spices, and so forth ; and purchasers know at once what part of the city to visit when any commodi^ is required. In London, the admixture of trades and professions in most trading streets is now such, that the bazaar method is little observable (for the motley ' bazaars,' commonly so called, scarcely come within the proper
90 DAVS AT THE FACTORIES.
meaning of the term) ; hut ititl, whoever noticei the UMmblage of GugHT-rerinera in the neighbourhood of Goodman's Fields, the wool- comlwrs in Hcrmondscy Street, the coach-makera in and near Long Acre, tho watch-mnkersinClerkenwell, the statuaries in the Paddington Rfiad, and many aimiUr instaiicct, will not fail to observe indicationi of this custom, and to attribute it to some sufCeinit motive. Proximitj to docks and warehouses fumislies a principal motive in the first- mentioned instance. Whether the sugar-refineries have, ever nince their introduction Into England, been located in this district is not exactly known, but such would seem to be probable. Stow, in the following remark, does not make mention of any partieuUr fait of London: — "About the year 1544 refining of sugar wm first UMil in England. "Dien there were but two eugar-houses ; and their profit was but little, hy reaaon there were so ninny sugar-bakers in Antwerp, and sugar came thence better and cheaper than it could be afforded at fjondon. And for tlic space of twenty years together the<e two mgar- houses served the whole rcaliu, both to the commendation and profit of them that undertook tlie gninc."
Sugar-refineries have certain peculiarities in their external appear- ance, whereby they are distinguishable from most other factoriet : they are very lofty, consist of an uniuual number of floors or stories, and are lighted by rather small windows, in tlic sugar-refinery of Meam. I'airrie, which we have recently visited, these peculiarities are veij observable. Nearly two hundred windows may be reckoned in the exterior of the mass of buildings, most of tlic-tn small, and some at such a height as to have seven floors or stories between them and the ground. The interior, too, lias sometliing pei^uliar in its appearance, arising from the shallowness of tlie rooms com])ared with Uieir great extent: these rooms are very numerous, nearly square, and no higher than is absolutely necessary, since tlic chief desideratum in a migar- refinery is a large extent of flooring. The greater part of this build- ing is formed of iron, brick, and stone, — a very necessary precaution against lire, on account of the infiamniable nature of the article manu- factured.
Most readers are probably aware that Mump' or 'loaf* sugar, — a holiday luxury to the middle classes, and, hitherto, an unattainable one to the humble,— is prepared from common brown sugar by a refining process, and thatthis process is conducted in the buildings to which we have alluded. In describing the mode of operation, we shall not
A DAY AT A SUOAR.ltBriNERY. •!
find it neceswry to trace the history of augar in its preriotu states; but itill a few remarks thereon will aid the object in view, by showing the Eucceuive conditions or forms- in which the sugar is presented.
The supply of English sugar is mostly obtained from the West Indies, where the sugar-CHne ia, as ia well known, cultivated to a vast extent. " A field of such canea," says Mr. Beckford, " when standing in the month of November, when it is in arrow or full blossom, is one of the most beautiful productions that the pen or pencil can possihly describe. It commonly rises from three to eight feet ormore in height, a difference of. growth that very strongly marks the difference of soil or the varieties of culture. It ia, when ripe, of n bright and golden- yellow; and where obvious to the sun, is in most parts very beautifully streaked with red. The top is of a darkish-green ; bat the more dry it becomes, from either an excess of ripeness or a continuance of drought, it assumes a russet-yellow colour, with long and narrow leaves depending ; from the centre of which shoots up an arrow, like a ailver wand, from two to six feet in height, and from the summit of which grows out a pliune of white feathers, which are delicately fringed with lilac dye, and indeed is, in its appearance, not much unlike the tuft that adorns this particular and elegant tree." Such is the external ap- pearance of the plant yielding the sugar-juice. By a succession of proceasea, effected on the sugar plantations, the canes are cut and crushed, the juice boiled, evaporated, and granulated into the form of moist or brown sugar, which is finally packed in hogsheads and ex- ported. The material on which so much capital and ao much slave- labour arc annually expended, assumes three forms before it reaches England: it is first a juice expressed from the cane; then a kind of syrup, from which impurities have been removed ; and lastly a brown granulated substance, from which a considerable portion of molasses, or uncryatallizable sugar, has been removed.
The ponderous augar-hogebeads which we notice at the shops of the retail grocers contain moist sugar somewhat resembling in quality that which is imported by the refiner, but with a finer and softer grain. This sugar, as every housewife familiar with the qualities of ' seven- penny ' or * eightpenny moist ' is aware, has various shades of brown colour, according to the quality ; and the principal cause of this colour is, that a quantity of black molassea, or treacle, which fbrmed part of the original cane- juice, is still mixed up with the cryatallizable parts of the sugar, — not having been wholly removed by theprocesset
93 DAYS AT THB FACTORlEa
to which the cane-juice is subjected before importatioiu Hie particles of sugar in their pure state are white ; and to preeent them in this wliite crystalline form is the object of the sugar-refiner, who adopts means for expelling the molasses, and abo certain impurities which are incorporated with the brown or Muscovado sugar as imported in the ^hogsheads.
It seems probable that the art of refining sugar was first introduced into Europe by the Venetians, and was practised in Venice some time before it was adopted in any other European country. The foul and black sugar brought from Egypt, at the end of the thirteenth century, was the first material upon which the art of the refiner was employed. The Venetians, in their first attempts, converted the dark moist sugar into sugar-candy ; but they soon sought to obtain refined or crystallized sugar by a quicker and more profitable process, which they at length effected by the use of conical moulds, such as have ever since been used. From Venice the art passed into various European countries; and since America has been so fertile in the production of sugar, re- fineries have increased to a considerable extent in England and other countries.
Let us suppose, then, that a hogshead of moist sugar, imported from abroad, is brought to a refinery, and let us follow it through the routine of processes till it assumes the form of a conical lump of white sugar. Tliis will enable us to describe the uses of the various buildings and rooms forming a large sugar-refinery, taking as our guide the one before alluded to, viz. that of Messrs. Fairrie, Brothers, and Co., situated neai'ly behind Whitechapel Church.
This refinery consists mainly of two ranges of buildings, in the eastern of which the earlier and in the western the later processes are conducted. The hogslieads of sugar, having been brought in wag- gons from the West India Docks to the east side of the refinery, are hauled up by a crane, and drawn in at an open door to a large squaro room. This was the first part of the building which we visited, and a busy scene it presented : here was a hogshead of sugar, suspended from the crane, and just on the point of being drawn into the ware- house ; there was another hogshead, deposited on a low iron carriage, and being wheeled farther inwards ; near it was a third, being weighed, —a process requiring tackle of no slight kind, since the hogsheads, when filled, vary from four to eighteen cwts. each; farther on was a man knocking out the head of a hogshead, and a party of others empty-
-•»>rA-
A DAV AT A SUGAB-RH1NBRY. 03
ing the contenta on k boarded floor; while other hogsheads, tome empty and other* fiill, were lying around in various directions. Our frontispiece represents the appearance of these objects.
The sugar, when about to be operated on, is transferred from the hogsheads to a wooden floor, from whence it is shovelled into large circular vessels culled ' blow-up cisterns.' If we gave a literal accepta- tion to technical terms, we should sometimes smile, and at otlier times feel a little alarm : in the present case it appears that the name is given in allusion to the mode in which steam is admitted to the con- tents of the vessels. The cisterns are six or seven feet in diameter, and about five in height ; and the purpose for which tiiej are employed is to dissolve the sugar preparatory to the removal of earthy and o^er impurities with which it is contaminated. The reader must bear in mind that notwithstanding the purifying processes whereby cane- juice is converted into brown sugar, there are still three kinds of substances which require to be removed from this sugar before the white crystal- line state can be obtained, viz., earthy and other impurities, colouring matter, and molasses ; and thst very distinct processes are resorted to in order to effect the removal. To remove the impurities is the first objecL The sugar is, as before stated, thrown into the ' blow-up cistern;' and water is admitted to it from a cistern at the top of the house, which supplies every part of the establbhment, and which is, in its turn, supplied from a well nearly two hundred feet deep, worked by a steam-engine. Into the cistern containing the sugar and water is pumped a small quantity of lime-water. A stesm pipe, in communi- cation with a boiler at the east side of the building, is enclosed within the ' blow-up cistern ;' and apertures being opened, steam is forced or ' blown ' by its own pressure into the solution, by which the latter becomes heated in a very short space of time. This is one of the many instances in modem manufactures illustrative of the advantages derived from the use of steam as a heating agent The water in the ' blow-np cistern,' being heated by the steam, dissolves the sugar, aided by constant stirring by means of long poles or oars. The lime- water, which lids in this process, is brought from vessels situated in the eastern part of the premises : they are casks broader at the bottom than the top ; and the time being dissolved in water and stirred till a milk-like fluid is produced, the lime>water is pumped from them as wanted.
This part of the process is one in wluch great improvements have
94 DAYS AT THK FACTORIBS.
been made of lato years : indeed the Mine, to a certain extent, mi^ be said of nearly all departments of the refining buainets. Under the old mode of proceeding, the sugar was dissolved in lime-water over an open firo, whereby it was subjected to a variable temperature injurious to the quality of the sugar : the clarification was effected by the ad- mixture of a large quantity of bullock's blood, sxid a scum several inches in thickness was allowed to collect on the surface of the vessel containing the sugar, and was thence removed by a broad skimmer. As an illustration of the effect of the albuminous refining substance, i.e, the blood, we may refer to the action of hot water on the white of an egg, which is almost pure albumen ; the white coagulates, or be- comes solid, in two or three minutes. If any liquid containing allra- men be mixed in another liquid and heated, the albumen, in the act of solidifying, collects together in a sort of film, and in so doing appears to entangle most of the solid impurities floating about in the liquid, removing them from the li(juid generally. The addition of bullock's blood, and the process of skimming, having been repeated two or three times, the solution of sugar was allowed to flow through a wooden channel into an oblong basket covered with a blanket, through which it filtered into a cistern below, carrying a consiilerable })ortion of im- purity with it. But, in the modern proces.-*, tlio de»ire<l effect is pro- duced in a much more efficacious manner ; for the temp(»rature of the solution is not greater than that of boiling water, and the offensive clarifying ingredient is almost entirely dispensed with, the process of clarification, or the removal of impurities, being principally effected in the next process.
The saccharine solution-^called in the language of the refinery * liquor * — is not skimmed at all ; but, at a certain stage in the opera- tion, it is allowed to flow from the ' blow-up cistern ' into a range of filtering-vessels in a room beneath, into whicli filters it enters as a thick, opaque, blackish liquid, and leaves them in a beautifully trans- parent state, though coloured of u reddish hue. The arrangement of these filters is exceedingly ingenious. Several cast-iron vessels, about six feet high, contain each sixty cloth tubes, about three inches in diameter, attached to short metallic tubes which are screwed to circu- lar holes in the upper part of the vessel, and hanging vertically down- wards. Each tube contains a large bag, made of a close kind of cotton cloth, and coiled up so as to make the whole a compact mass of cloth ; and the bags being each two feet wide and six feet long, it
A DAY AT A SUOAR-BRnNBRY. gs
U eaaj to c&leulftte tbtit there ue nearly fifteen hundred square feet flf cloth compriied in each filtering-veaael. The ' liquor,' theii, flowa bom the ' blow-up cisterns ' into a ahallow vessel to which these tubes are attached, and thence through the bags contained in the tubes. The bags being closed at the bottom, no outlet exists for the liquid except through the meshes or interstices of the cloth j and as the cloth forming each bag is doubled and re-doubled in its tube, the liquid finda iu way between the plies or folds of the cloth, and finally exudes in a transparent state. The whole of the impuritjea, with the excep- tion of a little colouring matter, are retained by the bags and tubes, while the saccharine liquor jfasses through.
It must be evident that the impurities left in the bags would soon clog the meshes, if not removed. At intervala, therefore, the tubes are unscrewed, and taken out to a washing-yard, where the bags are drawn out, the impurities removed, and bags and tubes thoroughly washed. These impurities sdll contain a smalt portion of saccharine matter, which is subsequently extracted from them by boiling and other processes; and the spent residue b finally sold as manure, for which it possesses valuaUe qualities.
The next point in our visit is to the rooms in which the process of 'decolouration' is carried on. The reader will bear in mind that the state to which the sugar has been traced in its progress is that of a transparent liquid having a reddish tinge. To remove this tinge, 'Without interfering with the transparency of the liquid, is the next object of attention; and charcoal is the agent which modem inquiry has shown to be best fitted for this purpose. It has been long known that common wood-charcoal possesses the property of removing, more or less, the odour proceeding from animal and vegetable substances in a state of decomposition; but it was abo discovered by the German chemist Lowitz, that the same substance will remove the colour from common vinegar and several other liquids : a fact which soon after- wards led to Jhe employment of charcoal in the clarification of various pharmaceutical preparations, and as an auxiliary in the refining of sugar. About thirty years ago, M. Figuire, of Montpellier, ascertained the additional important &ct, that charcoal obtained from animal sub- stances is not only equally efGcacioua when used in considerably smaller proportion than vegetable charcoal, but that it is capable of decolouring many liquids on which the latter has no sensible effects whatever. The sugar-refiners immediately availed themselves of the
06 DAYS AT THE FACTORIB&
knowledge of this fact; and since that time manj different modes have been adopted of employing animal charcoal in refining.
What is meant by * animal charcoal ' is the earthy and carbonaceous prcMluct obtained by burning bonos in retorts; certain other ingredients in the bone are driven off by the heat, leaving an intimate mixture of phosphate and carlK)nate of lime with carlxm, which then obtains the name of animal charcoal. It is not well known in what manner char- coal acts on the colouring particles of bodies ; but Mr. Aikin, in one of his Lectures, makes the fallowing remarks on the comparative action of vegetable and animal charcoal : — '*It is certain that the more finely divided any given weight of charcoal is, the more powerful is its decolouring effect ; and thus the inferiority of those kinds of char- coal that break with a glossy fracture, when compared with those of a dull fracture, is accounted for : the particles of the former being assumed to be nearly solid, and those of the latter to be porous, or, in other words, more minutely divided. In bone or animal charcoal the carlx)naceous particles are separated from each other by the large quantity of earth with which they are mixed; and hence the superiority of tliis to vegetable charcoal resolves itself into a case of very minute division.*' These points, however, are not yet settled.
We return, then, to the operations on the sugar, which we had traced through the filtering-bags. All the liquor, as it leaves the filters, flows through ])ipe8 into other parts of the building occupied by charcoal-cisterns, each of which is a square vessel, four or five feet in height, and provided with a double bottom, t)ie upper one being perforated with small holes. On this perforated bottom a piece of cloth is laid, and on the cloth a layer of powdered animal charcoal, or * bone-black,* nearly three feet in thickness. The saccharine liquor flows on the surface of this charcoal bed, tlirough which it slowly finds its way, percolating to the botttnn, then through the meshes of the cloth, and lastly through the ])erforations into the vacant Fpace beneath. Tlie effect of this filtration is very striking ; for the liquor, which, though transparent, is of a reddish colour when it flows into these cistenis, leaves them in a state of colourless transparency almost equal to that of pure water. Such a complete decolouration is the best proof of the success of the modem improvements in this branch of manufacture. The cloth bags, and the arrangements by which the liquor is made to flow through them, remove all the o])a(pic impuri-
A DAY AT A SUOAR-REFINKRY. fll
ties ; while the charcoal, and the apparatus of which it forma a part, remove the colouring matters from the filtered liquor.
In the eaatem part of the premiaea is situated a retort-house, sup- plied with furnaces, retorts, and various subsidiary arrangements. These, whose use might, to a stranger, appear rather inexplicable in a Gugar-reGnery, esemplify one of the most curious and valuable pro- pertiee in the charcoal employed. When the process of decolouring the eugar has rendered the charcoal impure, water is poured through the mass in the cisterns, until all the soluble part of the saccharine impurities is removed ; after which the charcoal is removed from the square cisterns, carried to the retort-bouse, put into iron retorts — of which there arc a large number, each eight or ten feet long — and there re-burned. The arrangements for thu purpose are on a consi- derable scale, and very complete; and the proceaais so conducted that the charcoal loves the retorts in a state as (it for use as when it was first made; all the impurities having been burned away, without any deteriorUion in the decolouring qualities of the charcoal. Thtu the same portions of charcoal may be used over and over again. This decolouring process was first employed in this coimtryon a large scale by Messrs. Fairrie, who likewise adopted the moda here described of recovering the power of animal charcoal, several years before it be- came publicly Icnown.
Every one knows that ' loaf' sugar, as well as ' moist,' possesses different degrees of whiteness and clearness of appearance. The mode in which these different qualities arise will be explained presently ; but we may here remark, that it is only the finest qualities which present the pure and colourless appearance alluded to above, aller passing through the charcoal The inferior kinds retain a slight tinge of colour.
t' We next transfer our attention to that part of the building in which the most important of all the operations is carried on, viz. the boiling. If we were to attempt a description of all the inventions and contri- vances which have been brought to bear on ibis process, it would not only absorb too much space, hut would involve scientific details unsuitcd to our purpose : it must suffice to show how the method usually adopted at the present day differs from the old one, now almost obsolete.
The ' liquor ' consists of sugar capable of assuming a crystalline form,— molasses, or unciyst^lizable sugar, — and water ; and the object of the boiling is to drive off a portion of the water in the
98 DAYS AT TIffi rACTORIBS.
form of steam, and to prepare the sugar for cryttallizing. Under the old system the saccharine liquor was poured into a large copper vessel called a ' paii,' and there boiled over an open fire, at a temperature gradually rising to 230** or 250^, until the evaporation bad caused it to assume a degree of viscidity known by experience to be proper for the purpose. From the pan it was emptied into vessels called ' coolers,' where it was beaten violently with an oar or staff, by the action of which the sugar was so far disentangled from the molasses as to be able to granulate, or become partially crystallized. It was found, however, that, independent of other evils, the sugar was liable in that process to be injured by the high temperature at which it boiled : for there is a tendency to decomposition even at the temperature of boiling water ; and at a still greater heat the tendency is increased. These circumstances led to the happy suggestion, by Mr. Howard, of a me- thod of boiling the sugar in vacuo. In the common operations familiar to daily experience, boiling water is always nearly of one temperature, because it is exposed to a tolerably uniform atmospheric pressure ; but if this pressure could be removed by the action of the air-pump, or some other means, boiling would take place at a temperature so low that the hand could bear immersion in the water with impunity. So likewise in the case of sugar-liquor : if the pressure of the atmosphere could be re- moved, the process of boiling, which is nothing more than a very rapid evaporation, would take place at so low a temperature that the sugar would not be injured by it, viz. from 130® to 150®, that is, one hundred degrees lower than under tlie atmospheric pressure. Such were Mr. Howard's views ; and few scientific suggestions have ever been attended with more complete success. Nearly all the principal sugar- refiners now boil sugar in vacuo more or less perfect ; each one adopting a form of apparatus or a routine of processes best suited to the circumstances under which he conducts his business. We shall pre- sently make a few further remarks on the introduction of this plan ; but it will be desirable first to trace the sugar through the boiling process. The pans at Messrs. Fairrie's refinery are circular, domed, copper vessels, from six to seven feet in diameter, and nearly the same in height. No fire is visible beneath them ; indeed throughout the re- finery we saw scarcely a symptom of a fire : whether the purpose be to heat a vessel of water, to boil the sugar in vacuo, to heat a stoving- room, or to warm the buildings generally, the heating jwwer is sup- plied by steam, which traverses almost every part of the premises in
A Day at a StTGAR-UBFINBRV. M
pipes. Each pan is (.-om)iIetely covered lu, ulr-tight; but there are tay channels of comraimication wiili oiJicr veiaeli : one ndmilting d sugar til tlie pan ; anuliier furnUhing % channel through which it J flow out ; a third ailmittiag steum for biiiling the sugar ; and a ,'ing OS on exit Tor the air originally cimtnined in the pan, and Id for ih« steam evaporated from tlie sugar. Various pieces of me- re attached to each pun, whereby lliti temperature of the aid, the quantity contained in the pan, &c,, 'may be lestod ; but e need not Iw furihpr particularised. The estcmal appearance uf 1 pan, and the appendages belonging to it, ate B«en in Fig. 2.
■ Tlie process, (hen, is briefly this; — The lir^uid sugar, after perco-
ing through the charcoal, riwI being collected in a (cistern several
I below the pans, is placed in com mtini cation with them by an
ding pipe ; and the air being withdrawn from within each pan
f means of an air-pump, the liquid sugar aacends the pipe into the
I by atmospheric pressure from williont, on the same principle
e water ajcendt in a common pump. Steam is then admitte<l to
L space below the sugar in the pan, and also through pipes
nreraing the interior ; and by these means the sugar is brought to a
e while comparatively at a low temperature, on account of
100 DAYS AT THE FACTORIES.
the tolerably perfect vacuum exbting above the surface of the liquor in the pan. As the evaporation proceeds, the vapour flows through a large iron pipe into an 0])cn court, where a cistern of cold water con- denses it as fast ns it is formed, and thus maintains a vacuum within the boiler. The sugar, by this evaporation, thickens, and becomes partially granulated or cr^'stallized ; and to ascertain how far this process has extended, a most ingenious instrument, called a * proof- rod,' is used, by which a snmll quantity of stfgar may be taken out without disturbing the vacuum in the pan. This ' proof-rod * may be regarded as a key which unlocks a little valve in the body of the pan, draws out a sample of sugar, and locks the valve again.