The Town and the Mill

‘The Town and the Mill’ shows Arnprior as it was in 1948. The technicolor film was produced at the request of Kenwood Mills, Limited. Narrated by Andy Clarke, a popular broadcaster in Ontario and Quebec, the film was meant to advertise Arnprior as a safe place to live where families and young people could prosper.

Transcript, as narrated by Andy Clarke:

Yes, Arnprior is a great place to live. It’s nice for children to grow up in a place like Arnprior. They have so many good things to remember.

School doesn’t seem like fun all the time but even geography can be made kind of interesting when it’s tied up with your own hometown.

There’s Arnprior, 40 miles upriver from the capital city of Canada. Not as big as Montreal, Toronto, or New York, but big enough to be a fine place to live. And from Arnprior, shipments go to all parts of the world: to Australia, to China, to India, to Sweden, to the South American countries. It makes you feel you’re really on the map when you think of it. Kids have a lot of dreams about this world of ours. I guess all of us do.

“Oh boy, when I grow up, I’ll go to Africa and have a diamond mine.”

“My goodness, I wouldn’t want to live in any of those funny countries. When I get married, I want to live in one of those nice houses up the street.”

“Gee, I wish it was still the summer holidays. I’d be down at the wharf right now. I wonder how the fish are biting, it should be a good day. Gosh, Grandpa’s lucky.”

“Charlie, stop daydreaming and tell me: what are the principal exports of New Zealand? I’ve already asked you twice. What are the principal exports of New Zealand?”

Well, wool for one thing, Charlie, and there’s plenty of it right here in Arnprior. Lots of young people leaving high school this year will find their life’s work in Arnprior because of the woollen industry here. It keeps the young people at home. It keeps town alive. We’re right in the middle of things.

Ottawa is only 40 miles away and it’s a pretty cosmopolitan city with foreign diplomats and commercial trade offices opening up right and left. We’re less than an hour’s drive away on the Trans-Canada Highway.

And Arnprior is well-served by railways. The main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway runs through town. The Canadian National goes through, too. We’re also on a main truck route.

Yes sir, here the young people have the time and space to enjoy themselves without feeling they’re stranded in the middle of nowhere. Some of them go away to university and come back as engineers or doctors. And they don’t have to go very far from the old familiar landmarks to find lots of work in their chosen profession. We’ve got an up-to-date hospital her and good medical care means a lot.

Arnprior was originally a logging town, one of the largest on the Ottawa River. McLachlin Brothers were the pioneers and lumbering is still an active industry here about. Gillies Brothers are one of the pioneer logging companies and they operate a big sawmill at Braeside, just out of town. And then there’s Campbell’s and Sullivan’s and the Canadian Public Booth Company.

Both the Ottawa and Madawaska Rivers, which join at Arnprior, have big power development. Just four miles down the Ottawa, there’s the Chat Falls plant. The combined length of the dam and powerhouse is about three miles.

It develops over 200,000 horsepower. The Ontario Hydro has another big project underway at Stewartville, about seven miles up the Madawaska River. It will cost ten and one half million dollars and will develop 81,000 horsepower.

Yes, there are plenty of opportunities right here at home. There’s the Kenwood Mill right below us. Many young people will find jobs there. This Kenwood plant sure means a lot to Arnprior. It’s a fine plant but it wasn’t always that big. There is a photograph of the original plant which Kenwoods bought in 1918 when they came to Canada. And here it is today. The town has grown and so has the mill. It’s a funny thing, but one of the things that brought Kenwood to Arnprior was the water of the Madawaska River. You see, most textile mills have to put chemicals into the water they use but for some reason or other this Madawaska water is just right the way it is. Yes, the Kenwood water tower and the Kenwood signs are well known landmarks in town. And, like I said, lots of our boys and girls go to work at the Kenwood plant as soon as they get out of school. And Kenwood’s a good place to work. It’s clean, well-lighted, and airy. They work a five-day week and have holidays with pay. And there’s a group insurance plan and a retirement plan. There’s also a profit sharing plan for all employees which has been in effect for over 20 years. And when your work results in products like these, it sure makes you feel you’re doing something worthwhile. It’s pretty hard to beat Kenwood overcoats for warmth and they look smart, too. And lucky are the kids who are tucked into bed in a Kenwood blanket.

Yes, Kenwood’s a good place to work and the work is interesting, too. I know because I’ve been through the plant many times. Take this business of wool sorting, for instance. Wool sorting is a skilled job. Wool from all over the world comes into the Kenwood plant. It has to be sorted for quality and for length and strength of fibre, because different kinds of wool are used for paper-makers’ felts and blankets. After sorting, comes scouring. This is a cleaning process that requires great care and exactness because the wool fibre can be completely ruined if not handled right at this stage. From the scouring tanks, the wool goes into large heated dryers where it loses all trace of greasy smell and comes out white dry and fluffy. Now we come to the dyeing. Years ago, getting the brilliant scarlet of the King’s uniform was a long drawn-out business of trial and error. The dyers of that day would be amazed if they could see today’s modern laboratory which makes possible exact colour control. At Kenwood, the laboratory standardizes and controls not only the dye but many other processes of blanket and felt manufacture, and new ideas are developed both for plant operation and as a customer service. A batch of raw wool comes out of the dye vat. I guess that’s where our expression “dyed in the wool” came from. Of course there’s piece dyeing, too, done on a modern machine at the Kenwood plant. Careful and regular tests are made of the strength of the dye liquid. In the blending room, wools of different colours and grades are blended in the proper proportion to obtain not only the desired shade, but the right strength and resilience. When the scale indicates the proper weight, the operator drops the load into the mixing picker. The picker opens up the bunch fibres and shakes out any remaining foreign matter. At this stage the wool is pretty dry and hard to handle, just like your hair after washing. So oil in emulsion form is added to control the wool through the carding process. The carding room is something to see, with the row of massive carding machines. Passing between a series of large cylinders covered with fine wire, the wool is combed out into a wide loose web of parallel fibres. Then it is combed again through another series of cylinders and is divided into narrower strands known as “roving”. Roving is similar to yarn except that it has no twist and is much larger and more loosely constructed. These soft bulky strands of roving are wound on wide spools and the wool is ready for spinning. On the spinning frames the roving is stretched out and the required number of turns of twist is inserted. Spinning is an important operation and the number of twists varies with the type of fabric to be woven. The next thing is weaving. I can see that weave room now. That’s the place where the actual fabric is made. There are five rows of power looms, the widest being a 35 foot machine on which paper-makers’ felts are woven. Then there are batteries of automatic looms on which blankets and cloth are made. One operator takes care of four machines. She keeps the magazines loaded with full bobbins which are fed automatically. Inspection is the next operation and in this department belts and blankets are carefully inspected. In this room also the felts are joined to make an endless belt. Good lighting is needed and like all other Kenwood departments this room is well-lighted and airy with lots of room to move around. Skillful fingers makes a join so that when finished it cannot be detected. The joiner gradually acquires great skill in joining the two ends of a felt together to make a perfect seam. Each end of the felt has a fringe and the operator takes an end from one fringe and the corresponding end from the other, knots them together, and draws the slack part either up or down. When the splicing has been completed and the end sheared, the join is spread evenly over a large area. This joining operation requires great skill and plenty of concentration and there are rest periods, both morning and afternoon for all Kenwood employees. In the new employees wing, with separate quarters for men and women, they can enjoy refreshments, the smoke, or exchange a bit of gossip. But I’m getting off the track. Where was I? Oh yes, I just told you about joining. Well after joining comes fulling which means shrinking the felt or blanket to the proper width or length. The combination of soapy moisture, pressure from the rollers, and heat caused by friction, shrinks the fabric from a woven mesh into a durable long wearing material. After further washing the fabric, while still damp, is ready for napping. This process creates thousands of tiny air cells which act as insulation and provide that warmth without weight for which Kenwood blankets are noted. The napping is done with small vegetable burrs known as teasels. As the teasels and fabric come in contact, the fibres are gently raised, forming a fur-like nap and leaving the body of the cloth still stout and sound. After the napping process, the paper-makers’ felts and the blankets part company and the felts passed to steam heated drying drums of special design. You know they have one big dryer there that will take a belt over 25 feet wide and 250 feet long. These felts are used on huge paper-making machines to carry the pulp stock and the wet paper sheets. Modern paper-making requires absolutely flawless felts. After drying, the felts are again inspected. This inspection business is carried to great lengths at Kenwood. In fact, it’s a never-ending process and there’s not much chance of even the tiniest flaw getting past the watchful eyes of these inspectors.

Remember what I said about Arnprior products going to all parts of the world? Well in the shipping room, belts are packed for Australia or India or Mexico and for China. Of course, most of Kenwood’s paper-makers’ felts are used in Canada. After the blankets are napped they have to be dried and then they’re cut to the proper size. Girls trim each blanket, sew on the Kenwood label, and add the satin binding. The ribbon is put on evenly and securely by a specially designed machine. The blankets are then given a final inspection and packed in individual boxes.

Everyone at the mill has his own locker and can change his clothes take a shower, or wash up at that special gadget in the circular basin.

Most people have only a few blocks to go to get home – no hour-long drag on a crowded bus or streetcar. Life in a small town gives you more leisure time. Maybe I’m kind of hipped on the subject of fresh air, but I sure like to see people get out and enjoy the rivers and the woods and all the great country we’re lucky enough to have.

Around here, we’ve got an outdoor sport for every season of the year. Myself, I like the fall best. There’s plenty of fish and game in this district and it’s good to take a dog and a gun and tramp through the woods when the leaves are coming down and there’s that kind of smoky smell in the air. Of course, there are some that like a little more dignified kind of exercise. You’ll find them over at the golf club most afternoons. I never rightly got the hang of hitting that little ball but even so, I like to mosey around the course once in a while.

Nice view.

There’s something clean and fresh about our winter and, even allowing I’m not as young as I used to be, I wouldn’t thank you to take me south away from all this. At least I don’t think I would. The kids love it and even in weather, I guess, variety, well, it’s the spice of life.

The women may blather at you occasionally for a shopping trip to the big city department stores but all in all I think they’d just as soon shop right down on John Street. It’s friendlier and it doesn’t take so long. Besides, they’re almost certain to meet up with somebody who’s got some gossip to tell. My wife says it’s no good saying that women do all the gossiping. She says that we’re just as bad. She says that when the men get together down at the curling club on a winter night, they’re as full of talk as double the number of women would be.

“And maybe she’s right. I’ve sure done a lot of talking tonight, too. Well, I guess I’ll be getting on home now and finish my Chronicle. So long, boys.”