AUTOCLAVE, INDUSTRIAL EXTRACTS FACTORY, TOODYAY

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1950

Subcollections

Overview

B&W photo. Autoclave equipment at Industrial Extracts factory, Toodyay.
A man is seen central to the photo (back view) doing some procedure over what appears to be a large bin.
(Appears to be clearing sawdust (?) from the autoclave into a hopper below.)

Historical information

Wood chips were fed into the autoclave, then steamed under 310lb pressure. This caused the tannin to be released from the wood fibre. The dissolved tannin, now in liquid form, then underwent various purification processes. Eventually all of the water was extracted and the tannin was marketed in either powder or solid form. The sawdust left behind the in the autoclave was used as fuel for the boiler.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-37-2001.1119

Item type

Photographs

Inscriptions and markings

In blue biro is written "Autoclave". A purple stamp "Proof Only" and the numbers 1600/64

Contextual Information

Industrial Extracts was a subsidiary company of Plaimar, and was formed in about 1935. The major factory was at Boddingon, Western Australia. Two mills there worked 24 hours a day during WW2 to meet the national demand for tanning extract. A third tanning mill was built in Toodyay and opened in May 1952. In 1971 the Toodyay factory closed when it became uneconomic.
Similar (but not identical) to another photograph accessioned in the Shire of Toodyay's collections as 2007.34

Year

1950

Geotag

-31.572872756159, 116.49910452561

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Shire of Toodyay

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