Great Los Angeles Plant Where mite Plaster Board and Lath are Mant tlreo. The Schumacher Wall Board Corporation, of Los Angeles, were the first people on earth to manufacture plaster bgar{ in large sheet form, and the basic patents under which plaster board was first manufactured,-belong to the corporation today.

And not only has Schumacher pioneered in the realm of plaster board making, but they have progressed in keeping with the building demands for this mosf popular material, changing, improving, developing, modernizing their equipment_and methods, until today they are operating in Los Angeles what they believe and declare to be the most modern and efficient plant in the whole rvorld for the manufacture and distribution of plaster board. It is with this nerv plant and its equipment that this article rvould chieflv deal.

No. 2

The demand for Schumacher plaster board grew so steadily and insistently during the last several -years, that_the progressive management-of the company found all effort to make their old plant keep step with the needs of the trade were futile, the result being that last year they decided to entirely rebuild and rearrange their manufacturing institution, which great task has now been entirely completed, and today the visitors to their Slauson Avenue factory are shown with pride through an institution that teems with interest, even for the layman.

To begin with, they junked their big previous plant entirely, and transformed it into a spacious warehouse for the new manufacturing department. This warehouse is 60O feet long and 150 feet rvide. The old board making machinery was cleared away, and the warehouse re-floored cannot be pictured here, in which the materials for the Plaster Boald and their other splendid product, Grip Lath, are stored and mixed. The ingredients of which these products are made are measured, weighed and mixed, scientifically and exactly, so that every bit of their product will be exactly like every other bit, leaving out the human equation and opportunity for making mistakes.

Into the greit mixing vat the coordinated ingredients finally go, and from there through the huge rollers that roll the moist plaster into a wide, smooth sheet, faced and reinforced on both sides with a marvelous kind of stout paper that years and years of constant experience and investigation have developed.

It happens that in these pictures, GripLath was the product coming through the plant, and shown on the ma-

No. 3 (AccomFon}ing Article)

and equipped with new and modern facilities and appliances for the storing and shipping of their products, both by rail and truck, and that storage and shipping department is a hive of well directed industry on every working day of the year.

Then they built an entirely new manufacturing plant adjacent to the lvarehouse, adding to their previous real estate holdings until thqy have seven and one-half acres of land covered by their own buildings. The new factory 'proper is over 600 feet in length, and of varying width, and proper rs ouu teet rn lengtn, or wlcf,n, an(l in this they have in operation equipment and machinery that for efficiency and modern practicability, challenges compaiison. The accompanying pictures tell the story, as far as pictures ma,y.

There are great retorts and other huge receptacles that chinery. The process of making Grip Lath and Schumite Plaster Wall Board is the same, so far as the mixing, the paper, and the width and thickness are concerned. The chief difference is that the Grip Lath is perforated as it comes from the rollers, while the Plaster Wall Board'comes through with a smooth, glass-like surface; and the lath is cut up into much smaller units than the Plaster Wall Board. Grip Lath is made 4 feet long and 16 inches wide, and either three-eighths or one-fourth inches thick. They also make a plain lath of the same dimensions, without perforations, when desired.

The Schumite Plaster Wall Board is 4 feet wide, and is turned out from 5 to 12 feet in length. It is an "open edge" board, is cut by perfectly operating upper and lower knives making the edges wonderfully smooth and uniform, a de- cided improvement over the edges macie in the old plant, while the face of the board is marvelous in its hardness an_d_ smoothness, having the feel of plate glass.

Now, please note the four pictures of tfie plant in opera- tion. In No. 1 we see the long strip of Plaster Board which has already been perforated for Glip Lath, coming along, hundreds of feet long, from the mixing and rolling machines, toward the cutting and drying department, the latter an enormously long and complicated piece of machinery that looks like a huge newspaper printing press, only many times as long.

No. 2 shows the board, now cut into lath sizes, going into the great kiln, automatically fed, automatically progressing through this .automatically heated kiln that bakes the board into perfect hardness. When Plaster Wall Board is being run the long line of board shown in No. 1 is not perforated, and is cut into the large board rather.than the small lath sizes. Otherwise the process is the same.

No. 3 shows the other end of thekiln, with the Grip Lath coming out. Here is the perfectly finished product, uniform in every way, every corner square and clean, every edge smooth and fine, no defects anywhere.

The board and lath are handled mechanically, as shown in Picture No. 4. Everything is efficient, all operations

Manager, who has been in active charge of the development of the business, and the reconstruction of the plant into its present virile form. More than two million-dollars is now invested in this company.

Earl Galbraith is the'Sales Manager. He is well known to the lumber trade of the Pacific Coast through long and active connection with the lumber industry in Southern California. Just as Schumacher has won renown in its creative and executive departments, so has its selling end reflected its wisdom and usefulness. Mr. Galbraith was a lumberman so long that he knows the ways of the lumber business, and Schumacher sales policies have been conducted in such manner as to make a legion of friends among the lumber dealers for Schumacher products.

Schumacher products are not confined to local markets by any means. Gradually the merit of the products themselves have widened the demand for same. Todav Schumacher Plaster Wall Board is sold all over the iivilized world, the export department of the business being a particularly successful one. And in the domestic market also, Schumacher products have continually advanced into new territory. They cover the entire western part of the United States, and in the South are already being marketed as far

No. 4 (See Accomponying Article) are coordinated, and perfect mechanisms have taken the place of hand labor throughout the institution.

Not less than six hundred thousand dollars was spent in the building and installing of this new plant. Nothing was spared to secure the very best, most modern, most efficient equipment that human ingenuity could devise, and money buy. The great factory turns out more than twice as much Plaster Wall Board as their previous plant; and only a few short years ago that old plant, in turn, was considered one of the nation's best.

Schumacher has simply kept in step with the law of progress. They are keeping up with the times. The new plant has not only doubled the volume of their product, but has tremendously increased its uniform quality. More than ever before they are able to sell their products "through the eyes," because the completed product of today is of a quality that speaks for itself.

The Schumacher Wall Board Corporation has become a very imposing institution. At its head is a splendid executive, Mr. A. R. Moreland, Vice President and General east as the Mississippi River. The Middle West is also a new customer. The impetus of the new plant and its marvelous products will enable them to seek these new fields to better advantage than ever before.

Schumacher also operates a greatly modernized plant in Seattle, Washington, where all of their products are manufactured just as they are in Los Angeles. There it is called the Gypsum Products Corporation, but belongs to Schumacher, and makes only Schumacher products. This plant, likewise. has been forced by the growth of its northwestern business to increase its production, and there they have also recently completed a most efficient plant of double their previous capacity. So it will be seen that all branches oftheir business are growing.

Dnring the past year a particularly effective and forceful advertising campaign has been conducted for Schumacher products. Magazines, trade journals, newspapers, bill boards, all using live and punchful advertising thotrghts, have been spreading the name and fame of Schumite Plaster Wall Board and of Grip Lath.

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This is a great product, this new Grip Lath. With every valuable feature of Schumite Plaster Wall Board {or a basis, they indent the board to create the lath, thus forming at once a wonderful barrier against the noise and din of outside traffic, while furnishing a gripping foundation to hold plastered walls safe and sound. A wall sheeted with Grip Lath and, then plastered is a wonderful wall, cool in summer, lvarm in winter, and a great insulator besides.

Laux Wall Texture

And now Schumacher announces a new sales connection that they believe will be a great sales help to their Plaster Board, and an economical line of wall tinting and decorating that will be highy approved by their trade.

l'hey have taken over the exclusive agency for Laux Wall Texture for California, New Mexico. Arizona. Nevada and Texas, and in September they start an intensive selling campaign to put this product on the market, along with their Plaster Board. They believe that this will prove one of the greatest blessings that has yet come to the user of Plaster Wall Board.

Laux Wall Texture is a product made by I. F. Laucks, Inc., of Seattle, for permanently and economically beautifying interior walls. It may be applied to new or old surfaces with equal success. It comes in a marvelous variety of soft and delightful colors of a sufficient variety to please the most fastidious. It is furnished in the form of a powder, and is the easiest thing ever devised to apply as a wall finish. The coloring is in the powder. It is ready mixed. All the user has to do is mix the powder with water, apply it to the wall with brush or trowel, and then smooth, rough€n, or texture it to suit himself. It is easier to put on than a coat of calsomine, is entirely fool proof, simplicity itself to apply, economical in cost (less than most paint) and gives marvelous efiects.

This material is ideal for finishing wall board. The Schumacher folks are enthusiastic as toits possibilities for helping sell wall board by making wall board walls more attractive than they have ever been before. So, believing that this line goes hand in hand with their own, the Schumacher Wall Board Corporation is going out into the world to sell the building trade on this Laux Wall Texture. You will hear more about it.

Mr. Charles H. Craig, a Laux Wall Texture specialist, is in Los Angeles, co-operating with the Schumacher sales forces in getting their campaign started. He will remain indefinitely, acting as expert for the sales forces in their efforts. Mr. S. E. Tucker of 314 Architects Building, Los Angeles, Southern California manager for I. F. Laucks, Inc., is also working with the Schumacher forces in getting their campaign under way.

And so the business of the Schumacher Wall Board Corporation is constantly enlarging, constantly modernizing, ionstantly giving more and better human service.

R. C. MERRYMAN IN EAST

R. C. Merryman, of Los Angeles, Vice President of the Fruit Growers' Supply Company, is in the east on a month's vacation trip that extends from Wisconsin to Maine.