242 ECONOMISING LABOUR BY MACHINERY. 



by which they could be made to realise sixty shillings each for exporta- 

 tion, would increase the value of this description of pastoral property to- 

 the extent of a million and a half sterling. With the idea of taking ad- 

 vantage of this state of things, J. H. Atkinson, Esq., M.P., has com- 

 menced operations on a somewhat extensive scale at Collingwood, near 

 Liverpool, and with the view of showing that mechanical appliances are 

 capable of effecting, even in such an apparently unpromising field as the 

 slaughtering, boiling down, and other methods of turning the carcases of 

 cattle to account, we are induced to give the following particulars of the 

 plan pursued and the results obtained : — 



Mr. Atkinson r s establishment is situated on the west bank of George's 

 River, near Liverpool, and is about a furlong distant from the railway 

 station at that place. It is connected with the railway by means of a 

 short branch line, laid down at the expense of the proprietor. The whole 

 premises occupy about 45 acres ot land, and the works give employment 

 to from 70 to 100 men. About 25 acres of the land are devoted to the 

 purposes of a vegetable garden, and as such form an important feature 

 in the economy of the establishment, as will be explained hereafter. 

 About ten acres are occupied by a piggery, holding from 800 to 1,000 

 pigs ; and the remainder is devoted to the necessary buildings for the 

 plant and machinery used in boiling down, raising water, tallow-refining, 

 wool-washing, fellmongering, bone-crushing, &c. The machinery is 

 driven by three steam-engines, a large portion of the power being de- 

 voted to raising water from the river. In order to be out of the reaeh of 

 floods, the engine-house is placed at a distance from the stream, and is 

 connected with the pump by a driving shaft, 700 feet long. No wheeled 

 vehicles, except tramway trucks and trolleys, are used in this establish- 

 ment, and for this purpose rails are laid down in all positions where it 

 is necessary to move weights from one part oi the establishment to the 

 other — even the food for the pigs being carried into the piggeries on 

 tramways, thus enabling one man to do as much work as would require 

 three or four under ordinary circumstances. 



To make the great saving effected by machinery in the different processes 

 understood by the reader, it will, perhaps, be necessary to show the 

 modus operandi pursued in slaughtering and disposing of the carcass of a 

 bullock. The beast, instead of being driven into a comparative^ wide 

 place, and exposed to the cruel and protracted methods of killing usually 

 resorted to, is brought into a place so narrow that he is incapable of 

 movement or resistance, and despatched by the butcher at once, with the 

 greatest ease. He is then lifted for skinning by machinery, and as soon 

 as the hide, head, hoofs, &c, are removed, the carcass is let down on a 

 chopping block running on a tramway ; it is then cut into convenient 

 sized pieces, without the necessity of the men handling or lifting the 

 meat, and the trolleys chopping-block run on the rails to the other end 

 of the building, where the boilers are. The meat is then lifted from 

 the chopping-block into the boilers by means of endless chains with 



