220 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Founhbridge.
vulcanised rubber-the largest pieces of the material
ever manufactured, as each tire weighed 750 lbs.
The company employ at an average 600 workpeople
in their establishment ; but in the preparation
of the cloth, thread, &c., used in the manufacture,
as many more are employed in an indirect
way. The health and comfort of a.ll are carefully
provided for ; and ip no department can it be said
that the labour is heavy, while that assigned to the
women is peculiarly well suited to them.
washing, kneading, and cleansing the rubber is
precisely similar to that used by the North British
Company. There are other departments which
produce respectively combs, jewellery, and miscellaneous
articles. In the comb department the
steam cutters are so expert-rising and falling with
rapidity, and fed by skilled workmen-that each
produces some hundred dozens of combs per day.
Besides dressing and fine coabs, a variety of others
are made, and much taste and ingenuity are ex-
THE SURURBS OF THE WEST FORT, 1646. (Aftcr GordaofRotkiemni'.)
c, The West Port ; i, The Suburbs.
The adjacent Scottish' Vulcanite Company was
formed in 1861 by several shareholders of the
preceding establishment ; but the two are every
way distinct. At the commencement many difficulties
had to be overcome. The chief of these
was the training of the people to a work so novel,
and the waste thereby of material; but now the
original factory has had a fourfold increase, and
employs about 500 souls.
The factory consists of a large central block,
230 feet long, and seven detached buildings. The
former is four storeys in height. A remarkably
beautiful engine, of 120 horse-power, erected in
one of the most elegant of engine-rooms, supplies
the motive power. The machinery used in breaking,
pended on ladies' back combs, which are often
mounted with metal, glass, porcelain, or carving in
vulcanite. The company was created chiefly for
the manufacture of combs.
In Kay's work we have an interesting and quaint
portrait of an aged denizen of Fountainbridge in
the Scottish Lowland costume of his day, " Adam
Ritchie, born 1683; died 1789; drawn from the
life." This old man, who died at the age of 106
years and two months, had followed the humble
occupation of a cow-feeder; but his life was not an
uneventful one ; he had been under arms in 17 15,
'' on the side of the House of Hanover, not from
choice (as he said) but necessity, he having been
forced into the ranks to supply the place of his
Fountainbrige.1 ADAM RITCHIE. 221
master?s son.? This centenarian died with ? all his
teeth fresh and complete, and made it his boast
that he could crack a nut with the youngest and
The Edinburgh Magazi/re for 1792 records the
death of his brother William, in his 106th year,
adding, that ?? he was twice married End had twenty-
P3RTSBURGH COURT HOUSE.
comprehended two districts, the Easter and Wester,
CHAPTER XXIX
WEST PORT.
lies wholly to the westward of Wharton Lane and the
