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- VICTORIA ILLUSTRATED. 81
TRADE AND MANUFACTURES.
FOLLOWING are brief references to various leading business houses and manufactories of Victoria, together with some facts concerning the
men who own and manage them :
ALBION IRON WORKS.
This immense establishment was founded in 1861, under the management of Mr. J. Spratt, who carried it on with varying success until 1882,
when it was merged into the present company, for the purposes of iron founders, engineers, boilermakers, and manufacturers of marine and
land engines, fish-canning and mining machinery, hydraulic giants, pipe, etc. The company was incorporated with a capital stock of $500,000,
one-half of which is fully paid up. Mr. James Dunsmuir was elected President, R. P. Rithet Vice-President, and W. F. Mullen Secretary and
Manager. Since the incorporation as a company, their success has been uninterrupted, and they have been obliged to increase their facilities
for manufacturing, so that now they can compete successfully in most productions with the San Francisco and Eastern firms. Their premises
on Chatham and Store Streets occupy three and a half acres of land. The enormous amount of eighty tons of pig iron per month, representing
one million nine hundred and twenty thousand pounds per year, together with four tons of copper per month, is used, and these figures give
an idea of the magnitude of the business done by the company. In 1886 their business amounted to about $170,000, while in the present
year the volume of business will be about $500,000. They employ some two hundred and thirty men, the wages amounting to from thirteen to
fifteen thousand dollars monthly, and import their raw material mostly from the mother country. When H. M. S. Amphion ran on the rocks
and tore a large hole in her side, the Albion Iron Works were awarded the contract for repairs, at the sum of $ 150,000. Besides
this, they built one 400-horse power Corliss compound engine for the Tramway Company here ; they made sixteen miles of 16-inch pipes for
the water works of Victoria and Vancouver, sixty thirty-ton cars, up to the present year, for the E. & N. R. R., besides supplying the
engines and boilers for. tug-boats, and fitting up the Lorne, the handsomest tug in these waters. The Albion Iron Works stands at the head
of the manufacturing industries of Victoria, and is second to none of its kind on the Pacific Coast.
VICTORIA RICE AND FLOUR MILLS COMPANY.
The Victoria Rice and Flour Mills Company is a branch of the well known and successful Mount Royal Milling and Manufacturing Company,
Montreal, and has been established as a rice mill in this city for the past six years. Within the past year the company has made extensive
improvements, and put in a complete plant of Goldie & McCulloch's patented roller flour milling machinery, which gives them a capacity of
200 barrels per day. The buildings of the concern are on Store Street, and are splendidly adapted to the requirements of the business.
The factory is situated on a lot of 120 feet frontage, extending back 150 feet to the water, and the property, having been purchased from
the owner of a crown grant, gives the wharf privilege as far as the harbor line. The milling and rice cleaning machinery is operated by a
Corliss engine of 100-horse nominal power, giving an actual power of 150. The steam to this great engine is furnished by two huge steel
boilers. To give some conception of the extent of the Victoria Rice and Flour Mills Company, it may be mentioned that it owns the 1,000-ton
ship Thermopyl?, which is kept constantly employed carrying rice for this concern from Bangkok, Saigon and Hong Kong, in the East Indies,
while she returns laden with flour for Hong Kong and Yokohama.
WILLIAM P. SAYWARD.
Mr. Sayward is one of California's " forty-niners." He was born in Maine, spent several years in Florida, and in 1849 went to Panama, and
sailed in a whale ship for California. He was at Panama when the second Pacific Mail Steamship arrived there. Arriving in California, he
engaged in building, and subsequently ran a bakery at Sacramento, which business at that time was about as lucrative as gold-mining. He
afterwards engaged in the lumber trade in San Francisco, remaining there until 1858, when he came to Victoria and entered the lumber
business. In 1861 he started a sawmill at Shawnigan, and ran it until 1868, when he built the present one, which is the best located mill
in Victoria. The capacity is 45,000 feet in ten hours, being composed mainly of small stuff for building purposes, while the mill is the
largest in Victoria. The logs are gotten from the East Coast of the Island, and Mr. Sayward owns large timber claims, which he is keeping
for the future. So great is the demand at present that the mill was running night and day, cutting from 6o,000 to 70,000 feet per diem.
BRACKMAN AND KER MILLING CO., L'TD.
Mr. Brackman is a native of Germany, and came to the Coast in 1847. Mr. Ker was born in Victoria. In 1876 they erected a flour mill in
North Saanich, and ten years later transferred their head office to Victoria, where they have just built a new five-storey mill, with
boiler and engine house attached. The main building is 60 x 80 feet. In the basement floor of their new mill is a 120-horse power Wheelock
engine, manufactured by Goldie & McCulloch, of Galt, Ont. The main shafting furnishes motive power for all the other machinery in the
building. The ground floor is fitted up with five run of stones for grinding the different cereals. The second floor is furnished with
bins for holding the different grains, and on this floor are situated the steel rolls for making rolled oats. The oats have to pass through
a special process of steaming before being rolled, and afterwards dried. On the third floor the grains are passed through cleaning machinery,
before reaching the bins on the second floor. The top floor is fitted with machinery for operating the elevator and for driving the
machinery in the cleaning room on the floor below. The specialties produced from this mill are oatmeal, rolled oats, split peas, pearl
barley, etc. In connection with their mill they have a wharf, whereby there is no handling of any of the products of the mill. No grains
are handled after they are emptied into the elevator, everything being accomplished by means of automatic contrivances. This building,
together with the improved machinery used for it, has cost fully $30,000. Their mill at Saanich will be shut down, but they will still
keep their general store at that point, together with their warehouses.
MUIRHEAD AND MANN.
The proprietors of the Victoria Planing Mills commenced business in 1870, doing a successful business from the very start, employing now
one hundred men, with a monthly pay-roll of $4,500.00. The specialties of the mill are mouldings, doors, windows, blinds, house furnishings,
special ship-joinery work and general carpenters' and builders' work, as also stair work. During the last year the output of the mills has
been doubled, and they have just erected a large shed, some 6o x Too feet, for the storage of seasoned lumber, and are making other and more
extensive additions and alterations to their premises in order to meet the steadily increasing demand for their class of work. During the
past year they have made large additions, too, in the way of power and boilers, and have also erected a fine steam dry-kiln thirty by fifty
feet. James Muirhead, of the firm, is
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