and next…

 (this is a continuation of the previous post here)

I’d no knowledge whatsoever of Saurer before this morning, so I didn’t know that their principal products were vehicles. When we arrived in the museum and came immediately upon the embroidery machines, I wasn’t surprised.  But I’ll bet those who come looking for old vehicles are!

Towards the back of the museum were the vehicles then, including a lovely old Post Bus.

As we pottered about here, a door opened and a woman appeared.  We were not alone!  But she walked briskly through the museum and out of the door we’d come through, wishing us a cheerful “Grüezi!” as she went.  We were alone again.

I’d had so much fun amongst the sewing and embroidery, I was more than happy to browse the buses and lorries.  It was only fair…

But I knew my Hero wasn’t that fussed about such things, in spite of his professional transport background, so we didn’t linger so long.

Oh no, because both our attention was taken by further textile machinery!  Much more interesting      Looking closely at this first machine, we recognised it as being similar to the bobbin winder – except it was for winding shuttles.

OK.  We’re in the weaving department!  This huge loom was weaving terry towelling.

I’d not seen such a thing before and was interested in the table of samples nearby.

Next to it was another loom, this one with three placements for weaving narrow goods, such as twill tape.

These machines were more modern, from the 1940s and 50s we thought.

Similar, but finer machines were there too, for weaving silk ribbon.

Alongside a larger loom was a machine for creating a punch card design from a drawing.  It being Switzerland, the design was of a cow.

The card was made of plastic, more durable and less likely to be damaged with heavy use.

The loom was set up to create twill fabric with a linen weft, suitable for traditional tea towels, we thought.

The design was so cute!

I liked the look of the warp, too, carefully wound with precision, most certainly by some kind of machine!

Here spindles were loaded automatically into the shuttles, threaded automatically using what appeared to be a vacuum process too.

There alongside, was another unrelated sample.  We had no idea why it was there, but thought it cute too.  After all, who couldn’t like the backside of a cow?

With a last look at the most modern (and least interesting, in our view) weaving machines, we took the door through to the last room.

The cafe/gift shop.  Except there was no-one there either.

But on the counter was a small cardboard box with the word “geld”.

There was a tea towel too, with the cow edging and the embroidered motif. 

And since there was a price list, you know what we did, don’t you?

Well, who knows?  But you would have surely done the same, wouldn’t you?

By the exit was a small display about Saurer today, most significantly, the aquisition in 2012 by the Jinsheng Group.  Though there are still Swiss connections the focus of manufacturing appears, as in so many similar companies, to have relocated to the Far East.

I was glad to see that some aspects of the company remain in Arbon, though, including Melco, a name I recognised as a manufacturer of commercial embroidery software.  I googled to learn more about the company and spotted another of their locations…Seestrasse 161, Steckborn.

Now, where have I heard that address before?