INDUSTRIAL GEOGRAPHY.
Five visits have been made this term, as follows :-The Automatic Telephone Exchange, The Holborough Cement Works at Snodland, Messrs. Foster Clark's factory, and Messrs. Short Bros, at Rochester, and to Messrs. Anstey's Motor Show.
The first held a great fascination for all. The intricate working of the automatic telephone was fully described, our guides explaining and demonstrating each step. The marvellous and yet simple way in which the required number is obtained through electrical impulses being sent through special "selectors," each selecting one figure of the required number, fully engrossed our attention. We were also shown the error of dialling too quickly and thus not giving the required impulses. The operating room proved a source of great interest, and we saw the operators at their work of putting through trunk and sundry calls.
We finished the visit by seeing the power plant and batteries for ringing bells, and alarm gongs, giving the various " tones," and for numerous other purposes.
The visit to Foster Clark's impressed itself upon us by its clean and orderly appearance. The firm prints its own bills, wrappers, and boxes with its own printing machines. Where colouring is needed a different machine is used for printing each colour. The process of making jellies proved very interesting, the large sum of 113,000 table jellies being produced per day.
Even the making of the paper bags and the lids of the tins is carried out on the premises. The making of the soups, lemonade cubes, the canning of fruit, the preparation of custard powders and milk pudding powders form a few of the numerous activities of this well-known factory.
The next visit was to the Holborough Cement works. On approaching the premises we noticed that the houses in the immediate vicinity were covered with a thin coating of white. The "Marie," one of the constituents of the cement, is obtained from, a quarry which covers 300 acres. The mixture which is known as "Slurry" has to pass through a kiln 200 feet long and 10 feet wide at one end, tapering down to 9 feet. This kiln revolves, and the "Slurry" gradually works down the kiln. Then to the grinding mills, where the material is ground upon lead balls. At the end of these processes the cement has to pass through a sieve, which has 24,000 holes to the square inch. If it will not pass, then the cement is of no