The ERWIN STORY JBQBK. € ERWIN = • ■Al^ljlUJ ERWIN MILLS, INC. THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL THE COLLECTION OF NORTH CAROLINIANA PRESENTED BY Theodore C. *& 3a% -o.i r^jiimm — Lferar/Fu?id __-- Cp677.1 E73e WILLIAM H- RUFFII €ERWIN= ^ — miijiixi — E RWiN Mills, Inc. Durham, North Carolina To the Employees of Ervd.n: This booklet was prepared for and is dedicated to Erwin employees - with the hope that it will be interesting to you. We are proud of the many men and women who make up the Erwin organization. Without your efforts to help produce quality fabrics, this Company could not have grown as it has since 1892, The future of this Company depends on each one of us working together as a team to produce fabrics that are better than those of other companies, and at the lowest possible coat. Sincerely yours, Preside --IM^- i- „;„ small begumm . ^ ^^^^^.^ „,, ,,u su-aauy «.■»-»; ™'„..„t, loeatea u, N«..l> j.^v^e modern texuie i _ e.™„. ana M.s.s^p. ^^^^^^__^ ^_^^, ;;. Let Ithen weave the story of «tton lerfU; though the huu, a,ul wl„v ol te =■■::: :-r=-£EB;' RECEIVING COTTON Trucks line the mill yard with their heavy loads of 500 pound cotton bales of which Erwin uses 180,000 each year. This cotton has been ginned (i.e., the seed has been removed) and baled according to staple or length of the fiber and quality and color of the cotton. In the background is a portion of the first Erwin Mill and one of the employees' parking lots. COTTON CLASSING Erwin samples each bale of cotton used. In a modern cotton classing room these samples are carefully exam- ined for color, staple, length, strength, and other charac- teristics. Under an especial- ly constructed skylight which gives a direct north light, one of our specially trained cotton classers is shown ex- amining a bale sample and comparing it with govern- ment standards in the boxes at his side. OPENING After the burlap wrapping is removed, small layers from numerous bales are fed into blending hoppers, which are the first of a series of open- ing machinery. The cotton is shown being fed into these blending machines. This pro- cess loosens, mixes, and par- tially cleans the cotton from a large number of bales in order to get better uniform- ity. lilWwaMsajWmwi^iy^imuMmiliUiiiiliii.i i m i mm»Kmisi''v«'^ - PICKING After the opening and blend- ing, the cotton is thoroughly cleaned in the picking pro- cess by a series of revolving beaters which remove dirt and leaf brought in from the cotton fields. Here one of our Durham employees has just doffed (i.e., taken off) and weighed a lap that is de- livered as a rolled sheet of cotton from one of the giant new picking machines. The carding process that fol- lows has a double duty. It gives the cotton a final clean- ing and combs out the short and matted fibers. The cotton that is produced is in a rope- like form, called sliver, which is neatly coiled in a tall can, ready for the ne.xt process. SLIVER LAPPING The card sliver is taken in these cans to the lappers where sixteen ends of sliver are brought together in one lap. By putting these sixteen ends together, many doub- lings are effected and varia- tions in sliver size are evened up in the subsequent draft- ing operations. This process makes the finished yarn more uniform. For especially fine yarns, such as are used in Erwin Percale sheets and pillow cases, the laps are run through another process called combing. This supple- ments the work of the cards by carefully combing out any remaining short fibers and producing a sliver of greater evenness. Here is a long line of recently installed bright new combers. DRAWING For carded yarns, the laps are moved directly to the drawing frames. These ma- chines start the drafting process by taking sixteen ends of card sliver in the lap form and drawing them out by a series of rolls of gradu- ally increasing speed, and delivering one end of about the same size as each of the sixteen. Thus, the individual fibers are pulled to a parallel position. ROVING The drafting process is con- tinued on the roving frame. This machine also puts twist in the rope-like stock by winding it evenly on large bobbins with rapidly turning flyers. The delivered stock is now called roving. This en- ergetic employee of Stone- wall is creeling his frames. This means he is splicing th'i drawing sliver from full cans to the ends of those running out. SPINNING The whirring sound of spin- dles is familiar to all who live in the textile South. Often called the pulse of the industry, these great ma- chines take the roving and, after a final drafting and twisting process, wind the yarn on smaller bobbins. An Erwin spinner stands beside one of her spinning frames, directly beneath the air con- ditioning duct. SPOOLING One of the most marvelous of the many precision ma- chines used by Erwin is the intricate Spooler which, with almost human touch, winds the yarn from the warp spinning bobbins onto a core, called a cheese, and discards bobbins with yarn imperfections. Here a Spool- er Tender of Erwin is shown along with a truck on which are empty and full cheese cores. BEAM WARPING The cheeses are fitted into a large frame or creel from which several hundred are wound on the beam warp. Erwin quality requires that the number of ends of yarn be accurately counted as they will eventually become the warp in Erwin cloth. One of the duties of this faithful employee of Durham is to locate and tie broken ends which, when they break, automatically stop his ma- chine. Warp yarns which are to be indigo dyed before weaving are wound in a rope-like form of many ends onto a large ball. This yarn is then ready to be immersed in one of the great dye vats of Erwin. This careful warper tender of Erwin watches closely as the yarn is wound very much like a spool of thread, differing fro m the beam warp which winds the yarn parallel to the beam. INDIGO DYEING In long chain dyeing the yarns are taken from the ball warp and immersed many times in enormous vats filled with dye liquor. Be- tween each dip into the vats, the yarn is run high in the air through "skyers", giving the dyes a chance to set through oxidation. Then the yarn is piled up for beam- ing, after leaving a series of hot cans which thoroughly dry it. After the yarns have been beamed, they are run through starch and dried on these huge hot slasher cylinders. The starched yarn can better stand the chafing which it will get during the weaving process. After it is thorough- ly dried, the yarn is wound on a large loom beam as shown next to the employee in the forefront. TYING-IN !9 ■■■ ■ IH^^Hi I L- K-'Y B 1 1^1 I ' ^ ^9H ^^^^^^1 ^■^^ I^^^S SB tf4l^,^*-* H"-- til ^^^K^ The weaving process requires that the thousands of ends of yarn be individually drawn through small openings in several parts of the loom called drop wires, heddles, and reed. This tying-in ma- chine at Cooleemee performs this delicate operation by carefully selecting and tying ends of a previously drawn pattern to a newly prepared beam of full ends. It is one of the most delicate and re- fined precision machines used in making Erwin fabrics. 10 DRA WING-IN When a new pattern or style is to be woven, the yarn must be drawn through a fresh set of drop wires, hed- dles, and reed. This intricate machine, operated by an em- ployee of Cooleemee who is shown wearing- overalls made of Erwin Denim, performs that operation by means of a fine needle thieading- the several eyes and drawing the end through in a fraction of the time it previously took to draw these ends by hand. WEAVING The loom is the best known of the many machines of the textile industry. Its thunder- ous clap as the picker stick throws the shuttle with its filling yarn back and forth across the warp yarn, is heard the length and breadth of Dixie. An attractive weav- er at Cooleemee is shown starting a loom in one of the great weave sheds of Erwin where thousands of such ma- chines turn out millions of yards of cloth each week. 11 PIECE DYEING To produce the high quality cloth in which Erwin takes such pride, many machines are used to perform miracles of fine bleaching, merceriz- ing, dyeing, finishing and shrinking. Here is shown a chief operator of Cooleemee who is very proud of his great new vat piece dyeing range with its maze of rolls, pipes, and dye vats. SANFORIZING One of the marvels of finish- ing developed in the textile industry is the sanforizing or shrinkage operation. An alert employee of Erwin carefully watches the cloth delivered from the large hot cylinders and deeply felted wool blankets to see that Erwin quality is consistently maintained. Erwin was the first major southern textile manufacturer to sanforize its products in large volume. 12 SEWING Among its many and varied products Erwin produces millions of sheets and pillow cases each year. The finely bleached and carefully in- spected sheeting is cut to ex- act lengths for sewing. This pains-taking sewer of Dur- ham deftly feeds one of hun- dreds of high speed sewing machines, putting the hem on an Erwin quality sheet. PACKAGING Attractive packaging makes Erwin sheets and pillow cases popular items for the store counters. Here neat packages of Percale sheets and pillow cases are being tied in a transparent and air- tight wrapper. The Erwin Percale, one of Erwin's new- er products, is a worthy addition to the line of Erwin quality products. 13 DURHAM LABORATORY Through all the many pro- cesses of manufacture, Erwin keeps a close check on qual- ity. In especially designed laboratories the raw cotton is carefully tested for strength, weight, evenness and other characteristics to assure Erwin quality. The picker laps, the card sliver, and the product of each of the many types of machines throughout the processing are also tested under care- fully controlled conditions to guarantee quality production. COOLEEMEE LABORATORY In the Cooleemee laboratory a chemist examines a piece of cloth preparatory to ana- lyzing it to make sure it has the superior qualities re- quired of all Erwin goods. As in the Durham laboratory, cotton and the product of the many processes throughout the plant are thoroughly tested. The finished goods are tested for strength, even- ness of dyeing, fastness of color, resistance to abrasion, crease resistance, and many other factors that the public expects in Erwin quality products. 14 POWER PLANTS To operate the machines necessary to produce the many millions of yards of Koods made each year, Er- win's power plants consume over 600 freight cars of coal a year. This boiler operator of Erwin must keep a con- stant record of the function- ing of the controls that govern the operation of this steam plant. SHIPPING At the conclusion of this long manufacturing process, which requires three weeks or more from the time the cotton is opened until it is finally finished and labeled, Erwin goods are either baled or put up in cartons for ship- ment to the thousands of customers throughout the world who have learned to recognize the high quality and standards of Erwin goods. Erwin goods move by rail, by truck, by ship, and by plane. Here one of Er- win's trucks delivers Erwin Sportdenim to a plane for direct transportation to the West Coast. IS ■= ERWIME- The Erwin trade-Tnark is a symbol of qimlity fabrics and established integrity backed by ynore than a half century of continuous operation, sustained by highest standards of material and ivorkmanship, upheld by progressive management and employee loyalty. The ten plants of the Erwin Mills chain have a total of 240,000 spin- dles, 5,500 looms, 6,000 employees, and an annual payroll in excess of $16,000,000. Erwin manufactures sheets and pillow cases, work clothing denim, sport- denim, work clothing twills, and sportswear fabrics. Executive Offices: Durham, North Carolina General Sales Offices: Woodward, Baldwin & Co., Inc. 43-45 Worth Street New York City Mills: Durham, Erwin, Cooleemee, and Neuse, North Carolina Stonewall, Mississippi Finishing Plants: Cooleemee and Durham, North Carolina 16 Bf^v^'/i^P/^//^7S^oP ■ I^SI MILLS 1 a 4 AND BLEACHERY a FINISHING PLANT DURHAM. N. C. MILLS 2 a 5 ERWIN, N. C. MILL NO. 3 a FINISHING PLANT COOLEEMEE, N. C. QUALITY -= ERWIN MILISE- MILL NO. 6 DURHAM, N. C. MILL NO. 7 NEUSE, N. C. MILL NO. 8 STONEWALL, MISS.