No. 1 Factory contains two large rooms, each 150 feet in length, with ample light from windows on either side. They contain some fifty Lever's machines ; and above them is another room of similar dimensions, where the dressing operations are carried on under the most favourable conditions. Here are stretching frames and fanning apparatus, and at one end is the dipping room. In an adjoining wing are large light and lofty rooms appropriated to the mending, clipping, drawing, scolloping, and other finishing processes, which are performed by a number of deft-handed girls, whose cheerful and pleasant faces testify to the healthful conditions under which their work is performed. The ground floor of this wing is occupied by the dyeing department, where the fine silk and cotton laces manufactured by the firm are dyed to the various shades which the exigencies of fashion may demand, and from thence are passed on to the dressing department to be stretched and stiffened as before described. On the floor above are the smith's forge and machine construction and repairing shops, where a large portion of the machinery employed by the firm has been built.

No. 3 Designing Room, New Basford, showing Designers at work.
No. 3 Designing Room, New Basford, showing Designers at work.

Passing through to the open space in front of the engine-house, we come to the large modern four-storey building known as the New Factory, formerly occupied by the lace curtain machines, and which since their removal to Scotland has been utilised by Messrs. Birkin for the more modern part of their plant of fancy lace machinery. All the machines in this factory are of the lastest type and construction, and on them are manufactured the very finest classes of goods capable of being produced by machinery. On the two floors there are twenty of such machines, each one of which, with its warp, represents a value of twelve hundred pounds. In ascending to the upper floor we note the substantial character of the walls and stone staircases, and admire the lavatories and general sanitary arrangements provided on each floor for the comfort and convenience of the employes. From the top floor a splendid view is obtained of the city of Nottingham, the valley of the Trent, and the surrounding country.

No. 1 Drafting Room, New Basford, showing Draughtsmen at work.
No. 1 Drafting Room, New Basford, showing Draughtsmen at work.

Descending to the ground floor, we now return to the lace curtain branch of the business, and enter the stock-room, 120 feet in length by 35 feet in width. From end to end it is occupied by racks that extend from the floor to the ceiling, and give storage in most convenient form for an aggregate of 100,000 pairs of curtains, that form the indispensable and always shifting stock of a business of this dimension. Adjoining the main block just visited, and at right angles to it, are two lengthy parallel buildings, each of two storeys elevation. Entering the first of these, we pass through a book-keeper and cashier's office to a floor of about 100 feet by 25 feet, divided by pitch-pine and glass partitions. On entering the reception departments we are in the midst of heaps of curtains, tied up in bundles, or "pieces" as they are technically called, goods in the brown or unfinished state, probably just arrived from the Glasgow works—and it may here be mentioned that the weight of curtains so received averages one ton per diem. The curtains having been duly checked, weighed, and ticketed are passed to an adjoining room to be looked over, and mended where necessary, before going through the finishing processes that must precede their being placed in stock or packed for despatch to some more or less distant portion of the hemisphere.