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Mr. C. H. FISH. We are still running about six hundred horse-power upright boilers, and we have been running now since a year ago last August, when we started; but have not made any tests for perhaps seven or eight months; but I see no reason for changing the figures which were given at the meeting here in the spring. Our evaporation, I think, ranges from sixteen to perhaps eighteen pounds maximum in our regular running, and we have never had any trouble at all with the process. This is the Archer process. As far as the first cost and economy goes, why, figuring from that evaporation, you can arrive at your own conclusions. Our coal used to cost us nearly five dollars, delivered at the mill. This year coal is very much cheaper there, but we have not bought any, so I do not know just what it will cost us. Our tanks are underground without any foundations at all; that is, we dug a hole deep enough to bury the tanks below the level of the boiler-house floor, and the tanks are held by brick cradles or shoes bricked up against them to prevent their shifting, and connected with the pipes; and the whole is covered up underground, so the road goes right across over the top, and there is no knowing where the tanks are. We left the hole open long enough to determine whether the tanks were going to leak any or did leak any, and when we found they were all right, covered them up. Mr. MESSENGER. I would like to ask Mr. FISH if they did not vent their tanks at all.

Mr. FISH. Yes; we had to vent them because of running oil into the tanks. We passed a pipe out of the top. Each tank is tapped with an inch hole, and all connected with one main which runs to one side of the roadway, out of the way, and an upright pipe sticks up six or eight feet; but that is the only vent except in connection with the pumps in the boiler-house.

Mr. MESSENGER. In our tests, as I remember, the best results we got were a little over seventeen pounds of water to a pound of oil, but our coal was costing at the time two dollars and a half per thousand pounds; that would be a little over five dollars a ton for coal delivered on our dump.

The PRESIDENT.

The secretary informs me that Mr. SHELDON's paper is in the hands of the printer, and it was promised to be here about noon. Shall we stay here any longer, or shall the meeting be adjourned? There is no further business that

I know of.

Mr. O. S. BROWN. Mr. President, from time to time we have parties come to us with some patent ingredients or some secret. substance they will put into our sizing, from which they claim to get great results. My experience with it has been but very little. Some have tried it; and if there is any good thing in the market, I would like to know what their experience is with it.

A MEMBER.

Dressine is the best article for use in sizing.

Mr. T. B. WATTLES. I will say in reply to that, that starch dressine makes yarn smooth, less chafing off of the sides; that is, yarn is as elastic, and more so, we think, than it is without it, and there will be less breaking in the looms in consequence. I do not know that there is anything more that I care to say about it.

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, Mr. WATTLES has not answered the question yet, by telling why.

Mr. WATTLES. I do not want to tell the gentlemen that. I think the best way to answer Mr. BROWN's question would be to do just what I often do, go to the mill and stay as long as I want to, until I have sized the yarn satisfactorily.

Mr. MESSENGER. There are sizing compounds that have a tendency to moisten or serve the purpose of moistening the atmosphere, so that the yarn does not get dry. Now, if there is such a thing as that, it must be quite an advantage in the saving of cost for vapor steam, and in lessening heat, so as to make the rooms more comfortable for the operatives. I have had no experience that I can give you, but I would like to know if any one has had an experience with any kind of a compound that does serve that purpose to any extent what

Mr. BROWN. I think, Mr. President, there must be several men here who have had quite an experience with various sizings, and things, the names of which I cannot give, for I do not know how many have been in to see me and told me of places where they have used them with great success; but I have never talked with any agent who has used it. If there is anything in the market, I would like to get it. I tried a cask, and did not see that it did me any harm.

Mr. WATTLES. Mr. BROWN remarks that he tried a cask, and it did not do him any harm. I will say if a person who has not tried dressine will try it, he will find if it does not do him any good it won't do any harm. I have used more perhaps than any man in New England. I have great faith in it, and believe it to be a good thing.

Mr. BROWN. That is not the question, Mr. WATTLES; but you take and put that in, so you won't have to use any steam. You might use it in the winter, but what would be the effect in dog-days?

Mr. WATTLES.

I think you want to use more of it in winter than in summer.

Mr. BROWN. We are making some sateens. Wouldn't it be a dangerous thing to use it there?

Mr. WATTLES. No, sir. There is something to put into it to prevent any moulding or mildew.

The PRESIDENT. Antiseptic?

Mr. WATTLES. Yes, sir. And, in proof of that, there are a good many men here who have discovered what that antiseptic is, and have used it right along.

The PRESIDENT. Mr. MESSENGER has made a pertinent inquiry. If any member has received any benefit from any of these sizing compounds, there is a good opportunity to state it.

Mr. W. J. KENT. Mr. President, I have had quite an extensive experience in the use of sizing compounds; and, as we have two hundred varieties of goods, it becomes necessary a great many times that we should look after them pretty

closely; and we make cotton cloth all the way from twenty-four picks to the inch up to two hundred and fifty. Now, I have found out this one thing, that the less you use of these compounds the better. (Laughter.) Notwithstanding that, Mr. WATTLES has made some very good experiments in our mill, and we are now using his compound; but it makes all the difference in the world what kind of goods you want it for. Mr. BROWN asks this question of Mr. MESSENGER. Now, you take our fine goods, where we use sixty warp and ninety filling, or about those numbers, and we don't want any of it. We use simply tallow and starch and water; the slashertender had an idea that he must put in a little turpentine, but it does not amount to that (snapping his fingers). I know there is a great deal of prejudice to be overcome in this sizing business, as Mr. WATTLES well knows. We have had one compound which we consider very good. Mr. WATTLES puts in another compound, and he has the barrels all labelled, and all put up in the same manner. My man thinks to-day he is using the other kind when he is using Mr. WATTLES'. (Renewed laughter.) I asked him the other day to take me where Mr. WATTLES' compound was. He took me there and said, "There is the Victoria, and this is Mr. WATTLES'." I have not put any Victoria in the sizing for several months; but I do not propose to inform the overseers. But I cannot agree with Mr. WATTLES on this one point; and that is, we want the humidity of the atmosphere in the room just the same as we would if we did not use it. Our temperature is generally about eighty-seven and our humidity ranges about eighty. Then we get the best results. Mr. MESSENGER. I am very much interested in this discussion, because I am just passing through some experiments in this line. I will say, I tried dressine in our mills. As Mr. BROWN says, we found it did not do us any harm. Another man sent a preparation to put in our sizing, and, in fact, we have two or three kinds. He quoted a good many mills that use it (I am not speaking of Mr. WATTLES' compound), and I

suggested they were all coarser mills. Yesterday my overseer called my attention to the fact that, while the yarn seemed to be strong, the warp did not break, and it ran well; at the same time the picks seemed to go in very hard, and the yarns felt like ropes. I had to take both hands to the rim-wheel to turn the loom over the pick. There was a marked difference between it and our regular-sized warps. It looks as though that is something we do not want. Notwithstanding it seemed to make the yarn feel very strong, it was not smooth; you could not put the picks in without straining the cloth up very tight indeed, to the extent that we narrowed down the width of the goods.

Mr. KENT. I should advise the manufacturers here present, before they go into any of those things, to look at the cost. We got into trouble once.

The PRESIDENT. The increased amount of power which Mr. MESSENGER states is something which I never thought of before.

Mr. MESSENGER. I will say that the warps we slashed with the dressine did not feel like that; we did not notice anything of the kind, but they seemed as smooth as our regular size, but with this particular preparation, it was remarkable, to my mind. A MEMBER. If Mr. KNIGHT is present, from what I have heard of him I think he has some facts in the case. I am told that in one corporation they used these various ingredients, in the Amory perhaps; and then in another, the Linden, they use simply starch and tallow; and, while they may cook it perhaps a little differently, they do not discover any very material advantage of one over the other. I do not know whether Mr. KNIGHT is in the room or not, but if he is, I think he can give us some facts right to the point.

Mr. A. F. KNIGHT. Mr. President, I did not come here to give any information upon the subject of sizing. I cannot give anything in detail, because I am not prepared to do so, but I think that I can coincide with some of the things that

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