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with the existing sanitary accommodation as a whole. Notice to cleanse
is being sent also, and improvements in the lighting and ventilation are
being required. Just at the side of the w.c.'s some refuse had been left
lying, and we are requesting the installation of a dustbin. For the ten
females in the office staff one satisfactory w.c. is provided.
Process. The stranded hemp arrives in bales on the canal from
India and China. The bales are opened and the hemp is passed
through separating machines dividing the hemp into strands. The
strands are then passed through mixing machines, thus mixing the
strands according to the quality or description of the cord required.
The stranded hemp is then passed through a cord-making machine,
coming out as the finished article, wound upon reels or into bundles or
coils as required. The noise created by the machinery is very great.
The floors are of cement with wood for the employees to stand upon.
Whiting Works.
These works are devoted to the manufacture of whiting. Spread
over an acre and a half of ground the works consist of a series of sheds
roofed over with galvanised iron. The ground is impregnated with
whiting dust, and much space is taken up by the tanks and reverberatory
furnace. Crude chalk is brought from Purfleet via the canal by
means of barges. Men can be seen unloading the contents direct into
the works. A man shovels the chalk into a crushing mill. This is
about 12 or 15 feet in diameter, and as the apparatus revolves on a
plane parallel with the ground, it crushes the chalk and mixes it
intimately with water. The finely ground chalk and water flows
through a series of settling tanks. Imagine 50 of these tanks, each
9 feet by 6 feet and probably 7 feet deep. The tanks are contiguous,
and they communicate by a small opening in the wall of each. The
chalky fluid passes slowly from the first tank right through each until
the final row of six tanks is reached. The flow movement is hardly
perceptible. All this time—two weeks are spent in flowing from start
to finish—the coarser and extraneous matters fall to the bottom of the
tanks. The fine grains are kept in suspension and do not settle until
the last six tanks are reached. The waste liquor or water is drawn off.
Sometimes this is allowed to run to waste, but then again it may be
pumped back to the mill, so being used over again with fresh pulverised
chalk. When it is estimated that the last tanks contain a sufficient