There is a twine factory in operation in the Minnesota State Prison having
a yearly capacity of nearly eighteen million pounds of binder twine. This
adjunct to the prison’s industries was inaugurated about eighteen years
ago, the author of the measure being the brilliant Ignatius Donnelly,
known as the Sage of Nininger. At that time the farmers of this state were
groaning under the iron heel of the trust, being compelled to pay eighteen
cents a pound for their twine, but today the prison is manufacturing twine
of superior quality and selling it to the farmers at an average price of
about seven cents per pound.
In its infancy the twine plant was conducted on a very small scale, but
the present management has developed and added to its equipment until now
the factory supplies almost the entire demand of the state. There is
little opposition from labor unions against the employment of prison labor
in this industry, for there is but a small proportion of the product
manufactured in this state outside of the prison, and outside factories
are under the domination of the Cordage Trust.
The successful operation of Minnesota’s twine plant has aroused the
keenest interest among prison officials in other states, and there are now
quite a number of similar factories operating in other penitentiaries.
Delegations of prison officials from other states are frequent visitors at
the Minnesota factory, inspecting the manufacture of twine, and they are
invariably enthusiastic over results attained.
The twine factory is what is known to the trade as a “three‐system plant;”
that is, it contains three complete sets of each of the machines necessary
to convert the fibre into twine ready for shipment. The transformation is
effected principally by a series of combings. From the moment the rush‐
plaited cover is removed and the bale is opened until the long strands of
fibre reach the spinning machines to be twisted into cord the material is
constantly undergoing combing.
The binder twine fibre is unloaded from the cars inside the prison yard.
It is weighed and stored in the warehouse until it is used. Adjoining the
fibre warehouse is the opening room in which the bales are opened and
spread out, the kinks shaken out of the long strands by hand and the fibre
put through a machine called a “breaker.” The breaker subjects it to the
first course of raking, and in order to toughen the material and make it
more pliable distributes a limited amount of oil through it. After passing
through the first breaker, it is sent on to a second, where it is again
cleaned and straightened. Then it is removed from the opening room to the
next shop, where it is passed through first to a coarse then a fine
“spreader.” Like the breaker, the spreader is merely a steel comb on a
belt.
After leaving the spreaders the fibre is in long, straight and fairly
clean strands, and one would think that it might at once be twisted into a
cord. But the combing process is not through yet, for in the next room it
is sent through first a coarse and then a fine “draw frame,” and then is
given what is technically known as a “third working” in a still finer one.
These draw frames not only comb the fibre, but they also regulate the
sliver—that is, they determine how many strands of hemp will go to make up
the finished twine.
Next the fibre is run through a “finisher,” an almost human machine, which
regulates more precisely than the draw frames the size of the sliver, and
then it is ready for the spinning rooms. As it comes out of the spinner it
is wrapped on huge spools, which are piled on little carts and distributed
among the men operating the balling machines. These latter wrap the twine
into five‐pound balls, tagged and ready for baling. In the balling shop
the twine is weighed, tested and packed in 50‐pound bales, which are sent
to the twine warehouses and stored there, roof‐high, until the harvesting
commences.
The output of the twine factory previous to 1903 amounted to about
5,000,000 pounds, but it turned out about 15,000,000 pounds last season,
and it is anticipated that this enormous increase will reach 18,000,000 in
the near future. About 225 prisoners are employed the year around in this
manufactury. Mr. E. C. Williams is the superintendent of the twine plant
and is an excellent man for the position, thoroughly understanding the
business. Under his capable management the factory is kept up to its
highest capacity and few breakdowns have been recorded.
[Spinning Room In Twine Factory ]