FIG. 50 SACK PRINTING MACHINE
By Permission of Mr. D. J. Macdonald.

The ownership of the bags can thus be shown distinctly by one of the many methods of colour printing, and if any firm desires to number their bags consecutively in order to provide a record of their stock, or for any other purpose, the bags may be so numbered by means of a special numbering machine, also made by Mr. D. J. Macdonald.

The last operation, excluding the actual delivery of the goods, is that of packing the pieces or bags in small compass by means of a hydraulic press. The goods are placed on the lower moving table upon a suitable wrapping of some kind of jute cloth; when the requisite quantity has been placed thereon, the top and side wrappers are placed in position, and the pumps started in order to raise the bottom table and to squeeze the content between it and the top fixed table. From 1 1/2 ton to 2 tons per square inch is applied according to the nature of the goods and their destination. While the goods are thus held securely in position between the two plates, the wrappers a sewn together. Then specially prepared hoops or metal bands are placed round the bale, and an ingenious and simple system, involving a buckle and two pins, adopted for fastening the bale. The ends of the hoop or band are bent in a small press, and these bent ends are passed through a rectangular hole in the buckle and the pins inserted in the loops. As soon as the hydraulic pressure is removed, the bale expands slightly, and the buckled hoop grips the bale securely.

Such is in brief the routine followed in the production of the fibre, the transformation of this fibre, first into yarn, and then into cloth, and the use of the latter in performing the function of the world's common carrier.

Printed by Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, Ltd., Bath, England