Trade a)id Commerce. 47 



Distilling is carried on night and day, as the process is 

 practically a continuous one. The by-products — viz., grains, 

 sluniage, cake, etc. — have a large sale for feeding cattle, enor- 

 mous quantities being sold in the neighbourhood of Belfast. 



The grain is delivered from the granary (the capacity of 

 which is about 250,000 bushels) to the top of the malt- 

 houses by spiral conveyers and bands fitted with buckets ; 

 the wooden channels in which it travels are fitted with sliding 

 doors, so that it can be delivered wherever required ; it is 

 then soaked in wooden vats until swollen, and the swollen 

 grain passes on to the malting-floor, where it sprouts and 

 becomes "malt." It is next dried, ground into "grist," and 

 stored for use as required. 



There are three immense "mash-tuns," in each of which 

 about 2,000 bushels of malt are immersed at one time to 

 undergo a churning process for some hours, until the whisky- 

 producing qualities of the grain are exhausted. The fluid 

 is stirred by fork-like arms, which revolve round the centre 

 of the vat; it is then cooled and fermented in the tun-room, 

 which contains 16 tuns of great size; the tuns are not filled 

 more than two-thirds full, or they would overflow as soon as 

 fermentation began. The liquor next passes to the three 

 stills, through each of which it travels before the pure whisky 

 is obtained ; the spirit is discharged into vats, from which 

 the casks are filled. 



The water supply is drawn mainly from a boring of 400 

 feet, from which the water is pumped by forcing air to the 

 bottom of the bore, after the manner of the American oil 

 wells. Power is supplied by a modern compound high-speed 

 engine, and there are four large Lancashire l)oilers, fitted with 

 Green's economiser, everything being of the latest type. 



In addition to the distillery proper, Messrs. Dunville have 

 very large bonded stores, cooperage.s, etc., in Alfred, Adelaide, 

 and Callendar Streets. 



A staff of no less than 24 I'^xcise officials are daily engaged. 



Rope and Twine M.\nukacture. 

 Another great business which no visitor to Belfast should 

 miss seeing is the Belfast Ropewokks, which has now held 

 for years an honourable place as the largest rope, cord, and 



