OF PONTARLIER (DOUBS)
The temperature of the cellars is maintained at a constant
level during the winter by means of steam pipes with fins.
From the cellars we climb to the workshop for packing
barrels and carboys; both are covered with fir tree straw
packing, in order to avoid, as far as possible, accidents en
route; leads and wax seals, with the mark of the house, protect
them from subtractions in the course of transport.
All transit between the workshops, the docks and the
stores is accomplished using small Decauville railroads; manual
labor is reduced to a minimum; therefore the impression with
which one is left after having toured the vast factory is
astonishment at how so few personnel can do so many things.
All the same, the establishment employs a hundred and
seventy workmen, including eighty women, not counting the
coopers and woodworkers who work outdoors.
Ever since the cases have been supplied by a contractor
exclusively occupied with their fabrication, there has been a
workshop dependent on the factory; there sophisticated tools
plane wood, cut it to size, cut the dovetails, groove the lids, nail
the bottoms, etc; this workshop employs 30 workmen who
deliver a hundred cases per hour; it is set up in a building
formerly used as a paper mill and it excites a keen interest in
all visitors to the Pernod factory.
