THE WAUPACA REPUBLICAN

October 19, 1906

 

GETTING READY

 

Union Starch Company Making Cypress Wood Tanks

Will Soon be Ready to Work up Surplus and Frost Bitten

Potatoes into Starch

 

            That the Union Starch factory is anticipating a chance to make some starch this fall and next spring is evident from the fact that a general overhauling of their factory is now being made.

            It was found that their pine tanks were rotting; so much so that five of them had to be made all of new planks and five more had to have new bottoms. A trip over to A.M. Hanson’s planing mill showed up a busy lot of men, some were running the long seasoned cypress wood plants form Louisiana through the planers, others were shaping the staves and bottoms.

            We saw cypress planks eighteen feet long and some of them forty-four inches wide.  The huge tanks are seventeen feet in diameter and eighteen feet deep.

            Five are to be composed of cypress wood entire and five of the pine tanks will be fitted with new cypress wood bottoms.  Another feature in remodeling the plant these tanks are to be provided with solid cement foundations to rest on. That the expense of these improvements is no small sum is evident from the fact that the most of the seasoned cypress costs $75.00 per thousand feet inch board measure.  With labor correspondingly high, it can readily be seen that the manufacturer is beset with some troubles and expenses in keeping a plant in repair, a fact which those who supply raw material to work up seldom realize.

            It is thought by those who can look into the future that the men behind the Union Starch Company are not making these repairs for potato starch alone but have in mind a future industry in which not only the juices of potatoes but beets, apples, green corn stalks and other things can be turned into denatured alcohol for industrial, fuel and light uses.

            The company is to be congratulated on their substantial improvements and should be encouraged by everybody.