THE TRADE OF ABERDEEN 103 
Hutchison, Ltd., agricultural seed growers and dealers and manufacturers 
of agricultural implements. 
Other companies in Aberdeen manufacturing and dealing in all sorts 
of agricultural products are the Aberdeen Lime Co., Ltd., Northern 
Agricultural Co., Ltd., and North-Eastern Agricultural Co-operative 
Society, Ltd. 
ComB-MAKING.—For many years Aberdeen has been the centre of 
the comb-making industry in Great Britain. In fact the works of the 
Aberdeen Combworks Co., Ltd. are the largest in the world engaged in 
the manufacture of combs. The works have been in existence for over 
100 years, and cover an area of about eight acres, about 300 hands being 
employed making combs of every description and other articles, including 
ladies’ fancy combs, hair slides, pins, shoehorns, spoons, drinking cups, 
paper knives, toothpicks, nail cleaners, serviette rings, scoops, spatulas, 
tobacco boxes, etc., from horn, and from the Company’s own non- 
inflammable substitute, which they call ‘ Keronyx.’ The Company also 
supply their non-inflammable ‘ Keronyx’ to button-makers and knife- 
handle manufacturers, and for electrical fittings, this material being an 
excellent insulator. It is also used for many other purposes. 
ENGINEERING.—In recent years the engineering trade in Aberdeen has 
developed appreciably, making the district a more recognised engineering 
centre. Several of the best known and more important firms have 
improved and added greatly to their manufacturing facilities and are 
in a position to deal with a much larger volume of trade. Local require- 
ments afford a considerable measure of employment in the case of some 
firms, but the fulfilment of orders coming from other parts of the country, 
the Dominions, the Colonies and abroad, forms much the larger pro- 
portion of the output from most shops. The productions of engineering 
and shipbuilding firms in Aberdeen and district are of a varied character, 
among the better known being the following: shipbuilding, particularly 
for the fishing industry, dredgers and barges, marine engines, marine 
and land boilers ; cranes, conveyors and elevators, aerial cableways and 
ropeways and all other types of handling machinery ; Diesel engines, 
gas and oil engines, power transmission machinery, air compressors and 
pneumatic machinery, granite and stone working machinery ; coffee 
manufacturing, rice mill and agricultural machinery; brewing and 
distillery plant, also castings of iron and non-ferrous metals for all 
purposes. 
Fiax.—At the head of the local textile industries may be placed the 
flax-spinning industry, carried on at Broadford Works by Messrs. 
Richards, Ltd. ‘The works have been in existence since 1808, but the 
present company was formed in 1898. The history of the present company 
has been marked by great developments in trade and a corresponding 
expansion of the works. The name of Richards, Ltd. is known the 
world over and their products have the reputation of which not only the 
Company itself but also the City of Aberdeen have just cause to be 
proud. Until 1904 Aberdeen could also boast of having a noted cotton 
mill in the city. The ‘ Bannermill’ that year, after running for eighty 
years, had to close down, and about the same time Hadden’s Woollen 
