Interior of a Modern Coffee Factory in East Java
Showing pulping machinery and fermentation tanks
PREPARING JAVA COFFEE FOR THE MARKET
The factory includes a water-power plant delivering, through an American water wheel and by cable, 250 horse-power to the main shafting, an auxiliary steam plant of 150 horse-power as a reserve, a rubber mill, a coffee mill, three sisal-stripping machines, smoke-houses, drying fields and houses for sisal, drying floors and houses for coffee, sorting rooms, blacksmith shop, machine shop, brass-fitting foundry, packing houses, warehouses, and other equipment. The factory is in charge of a first assistant, who is a machinist, with a European staff consisting of a machinist and an apprentice assistant.
The chief garden assistant is paid 350 to 400 florins, and the garden assistants start at 200 florins per month, with graduated yearly increases up to 300 florins per month (florin=$0.40). The chief factory assistant receives 300 florins, and the machinist and bookkeeper 250 florins each.
The mandoer in charge of the air and kiln drying of coffee gets 25 florins per month, and the mandoer at the coffee mill 20 florins. A woman mandoer in charge of the coffee sorters receives 0.50 florin per day and 0.01 florin each for sewing the bags. This woman supervises all the sorters, fixes their status, and inspects their work. Unskilled labor (male) receives 0.40 florin per day in the coffee sheds, and the women sorters are paid 0.50 florin per picul of 136 pounds, measured before sorting. These women are graded into three classes—those who can sort 1 picul in a day, those who can sort three-fourths of a picul, and those who can sort but one-half of a picul in a day. Some of these women become very expert in sorting, and the quality of the output of a factory is largely dependent on an ample supply of expert sorters. Many years are required to develop an adequate personnel for this department.
Coffee Transport in Java