Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 28 November 2024

Making an Irish Free State City – Sunbeam Wolsey and the Nylon Evolution

In an article in the Journal of the Association of Chambers of Ireland in July 1953, a write up on Sunbeam Wolsey Ltd reveals the company’s foray into the production of nylon stockings.

When the big American firm of Du Pont announced that they were about to produce a new synthetic fibre, nylon, in commercial quantities, the world took little notice in the late 1930s. For another thing, war (second World War) was imminent. When nylon came it surpassed all expectations and claims and it more than repaid for the ten years of research work and expenditure of many millions of dollars that produced it.

When the concept of nylon appeared on the market, Sunbeam Wolsey Ltd was one of the first to see the possibilities of the new filament. Although wool was the main product of Sunbeam Wolsey, they had ample room for expansion. The company sent its technicians America to study it in all aspects of nylon’s production and manufacture. They returned to Cork enthusiastic about its future. The result was that as soon as nylon became freely available just after the war, in 1947, Sunbeam installed the latest American machinery and began to make nylons.

There was the choice of having the operators trained at home or by practical demonstration and experience in the United States. A group of workers was sent to study the methods used at the famous Berkshire Mills in Reading, Pennsylvania. They worked there for periods ranging from six to twelve months, side by side with the skilled American technicians.

The nylon yarn used in the Cork mill was imported from Du Pont and from British Nylon Spinners. Using American methods and processes throughout, Sunbeam learned to produce nylons identical in quality and appearance with the best American product. Indeed, the first quality Sunbeam stockings retailed at a lower price than similar American stockings did in their home market.

In the Cork mill yarn for nylon was wound onto bobbins or pirns, which were mounted on fully-fashioned hosiery machines. The whole section of the factory was not only self-contained, but sealed off by double doors from the other sections. The delicacy of the yarns used and their response to the slightest alteration in temperature or humidity made it essential that both these factors had to be maintained at a constant level. For this reason an air conditioning system guarded against any deviation from 80 degrees Fahrenheit throughout the department and a relative humidity of 50 per cent.

Before it could be knit in the machines, the yarn had to be strengthened by receiving a coating of size. This in turn created more difficulties because of the roughness of the treated yarn, which had to be given a certain degree of malleability by immersion in another solution before it became tough enough to withstand the rigours of the knitting and supple enough to link in the form of the stitches without fraying. The Journal noted of the machinery used:

“Stretching a full 53 feet from end to end, the hosiery knitting machine is one of the marvels of the modern world. Unerringly, once set in motion, it performs amazing feats of skill starting the stocking at the top or welt in heavily reinforced material, doubling the welt over and picking up all the stitches again simultaneously, changing down to the finest of yarn, and knitting the almost invisible web of stocking, dropping stitches to shape the knee, calf and ankle, drawing in more yarn to reinforce the heel, and finishing the stocking by dropping more and more stitches until the foot ends at the toe”.

With 12,000 needles working to regular clock-like rhythm, the machine knitted 30 stockings at a time, each run took about 45 minutes; Its movements were pre-determined through an electronic brain, which counted the stitches, casted off, drew in the extra yarn for reinforcing and guided the flashing needles.

Not only is the yarn dependent on strict air and temperature conditioning of the department; the machines were delicate too. If the temperature were to vary by only a few degrees, the consequent expansion of the steel bars that ran the whole 53 feet length of the unit would throw the needles far out of alignment.

The stockings were knitted in the flat opened-out form and of un-dyed yarn. These blanks were very susceptible to snags, and to increase their resistance they were first placed in a conditioning chamber where they are submitted to a temperature of 164 degrees and a relative humidity of 70 per cent for a period of half an hour. Afterwards they were dried and taken to the seamers. The formed stockings were then tested and examined on an expanding tube; “The depression of a foot pedal by the operator exerts a pressure of about 30 lbs, stretching the stocking to more than twice its normal diameter. Any faults will show immediately under such a test, and faulty stockings are discarded”.

The next process was that of pre-boarding. The stockings were drawn over flat leg-shaped metals and placed in a steam oven at about 30 lbs pressure for five minutes to set the stitches, which afterwards would never lose their shape. They were then scoured in a large washing machine to remove the “size still coating the yarn”. After drying the bags were placed in a rotating drying machine and subsequently dried in centrifugal hydro-extractor.

The final manufacturing process involved the stocking once again drawn over leg shaped flat metal pieces, which carry them through another oven chamber in which the shape of the stockings is fixed permanently. They were then laid in heaps of one dozen and moved away by conveyor belt to the packing department, which they were checked for faults and then onto the packers.

All the cardboard boxes used for Sunbeam products were made at the factory, where a complete box-making plant was installed, operators and all, some years previously. There was also a huge dispatch department, from which the many products were sent to the wholesale warehouse in Dublin, from where the entire country, except Cork City and County, was served. Sunbeam was selling more and more goods abroad. Twice a year, buyers from New York’s largest stores travel to Europe seeking the best goods available to bring home to their customers.

Caption:

1281a. Employee at Sunbeam Wolsey Ltd working on nylon stockings, 1953 (source: Journal of the Association of Chambers of Ireland, July 1953; British Library).

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 21 November 2024

Making an Irish Free State City – Sunbeam Wolsey’s War Years

The Thirteenth Ordinary General Meeting of Sunbeam Wolsey Ltd was held on 12 September, 1941. It revealed methods of circumventing challenges posed by the Second World War. In particular, during the summer of 1941, a complete embargo was placed by the Westminister government on the export of Australian wool to Ireland. As a result it was initially feared that only half of the Combing Plant could be utilised. So Irish wool was used. A closer study  found that Irish wool was of infinitely better quality than had been anticipated and that it could be processed on the finest of the factory combs.

William Dwyer much regretted the reduction of £23,000 in stock. It was partly due to the difficulty in obtaining raw materials and it was also due to the much greater demand for the goods manufactured by the Company.

However, against that context in 1942 Sunbeam Wolsey Ltd published a promotional booklet, which set out in brief the first 14 years of the Company since 1928 and an overview of the Company in that year. It was highlighted that the entire Company was managed by Mr Declan Dwyer, who was also a Director and a son of the founder. The initial pages focussed in on the processes of scouring, combing, and carding that took place in a long and grey single-storey building at Blackpool.

Focus was placed on the fact that a large proportion of the hosiery yarns used in this country were dyed at Blackpool, including commissioned work for outside spinners and manufacturers. At Millfield one of the best-equipped machinery dyehouses in Ireland was sited. The booklet noted that the dyeing transformation scene was like a scene in a pantomime; “The products are changed in the dyehouse into riotous colours-every colour imaginable, from the browns of the Silk Hosiery to the blues, crimsons To this portion of the factory come the yarns to and greens of the wool yarns…The dyer’s job is not merely to produce beautiful shades though. He has to make the colours proof against light. washing, perspiration and sea water. To do this, he must have ample supplies of good water, and at Millfield a big filtering plant and the ‘Permutit’ process purifies and softens the water to zero degrees hardness”.

The booklet continued to describe that down in the bowels of the factory was the boiler house with its three 38-foot boilers, each capable of generating 10,000 lbs of steam per hour. Here too was a huge steam accumulator that kept the supply of steam heat to the factory, dyehouse and humidifiers constant – even though the boiler output varied. Finally, the water softening plant ensured that the water used for cleaning and dyeing was of the exact nature required. Pumped through filters to free it from impurities, the water went to the Permutit softening plant at the rate of 5,000 gallons hourly.

There was an interesting section in the booklet dealing with the heat within the factory in the silk thrower section. The whole process of spinning and knitting silk hosiery was carried out at a tropical temperature. Traversing the ceiling at regular intervals were big white humidifiers, which kept the atmosphere at a set warm temperature. If that did not occur, the silk thread would become hard, brittle and unworkable. As the silk arrived from China or Japan, the silk was in long hanks and had to be steeped in special oils and chemicals for a number of hours to give it elasticity.

Throughout the promotional booklet, there were nods as one would expect to the skilled workers and the importance of efficient management; “The Sunbeam Wolsey equipment is the finest procurable. The Sunbeam Wolsey workers are second to none in skill and the materials used are the best that money can buy. Everyone at Sunbeam Wolsey, from the management right down to the latest joined junior, is united in a firm resolve that every Sunbeam Wolsey garment will be all that the most critical wearer could desire. It will give satisfaction, not only when new, but through long and strenuous wear”.

Through graphic illustrations in the booklet, some interesting facts about Sunbeam Wolsey production were highlighted, especially on yarn production and payroll; “In only one day enough wool yarn to stretch twice around the world is produced while the number of employees has increased thirteen times. The weekly payroll has increased twenty times and up to 1940 the production of silk hosiery had grown eightfold. Perhaps the most surprising thing that emerges from those figures is that the production per employee is practically doubled since 1928. The reasons for this are increased efficiency, experience, and the most up-to-date plant obtainable”.

A section in the promotional booklet was also given over to the social services given to employees. A dispensary and surgery at the Blackpool plant was properly staffed and equipped by the management. Workers could have free medical attention. The brochure denoted a contentness in a great reduction in the number of days lost through illness. Other social services were the canteen, the recreation grounds and the football teams. In the canteen employees could purchase hot meals, cigarettes and chocolate. If they wished to bring their own meals with them, they could also eat them in comfort in the canteen along with their fellow-workers.

The booklet also denoted that when the (Second World) War broke out the firm immediately provided proper Air Raid Protection for the staff through building and equipping huge underground shelters. Fully-trained Air Raid Squads and a fully-equipped fire service were always ready to deal with an impending emergency.

To be continued…

Caption:

1280a. A representative pictured in the 1942 Sunbeam Wolsey Ltd promotional booklet of nearly a thousand Sunbeam Wolsey workers. This girl is operating a flatlock seaming machine for making flat-seamed underwear (source: Cork City Library).