Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1881-09-21
How School Globes Are Made,

How School Globes Are Made.
The ordinary instruction globe seems
like Il perfect and uniform production, as
an egg, without external joints, light in
weight balanced us to gravitation, smooth.
glossy, perfect. 1t may have been a puz
zle TO many who have pored over globe
in search of information, to understand of
what it was composed and how il was
made. 70 fill all the items of this inform
alton would require long article, but an
idea of the composition and making of
globes can be given in few sentences.
A globe is simply two hemispheres of
paper. The paper is thick, porous and
resembles Impressed straw board. To
form the hemisphere IA circular disc of this
thick yellow paper is cut into cores, just
as one might take the peel from half an
orange and cut half n dozen angular
pieces from it and then press the edges
together until they met. This is what is
done in Il globe manufactory; but the
goring is done in IL cutting press by dies,
50 that the work is not only quickly done,
but is done with great exactness. This
gored discs are placed under Il semi-globu-
lar press, with the best glue on their
edges, they come out perfect half spheres.
Two of these are connected by glue on the
edges, after being strung on wire that
eventually forms, at its two ends. the north
and south poles.
The globe, thus formed and left to dry,
is in about rs unfinished state rs this now
habitable one was before dnol herium, and
icnthyosaurus, and pterodactyl, and all the
host of extinct monsters put in an appear
ance, and the human race frightened itself
with their high sounding Greek Names
The embryo globe is dirty looking ball
of dried paper 1t is rasped down with
abrasive materials and painted over with
Il hard finish that gives ii surface like
glass. Of course thorough drying is nec-
essary between manipulating processes
An after polish prepares the globe for its
instructive surface. This is map of the
world in twelve sectonsof a lozenge form,
or, to be more familiar, just what the sec.
tion> of the peel of an orange would be
cut into twelve pieces from stem to bud.
The sections are printed on very thin but
very tough paper, and IA narrow margin is
left on the border afterwards pared by
scissors. The placing of these on the
globe is hand Work entirely, and is done
by women. whose delicacy of touch and
carefuness of handling appear to be
specially adapted to such puttering "
work. The operator takes one of these
"gores - in the fingers of the right hand.
CLUES the globe with brush held in the
left, then carefully beginning at one pole
follows Il parallel of longitude up to and
over the equator TO the north pole, rub.
bing, as her fingers 90, the edges, of the
paper to place and gradually working
down " the paper over its entire surface
with an ivory spatula. This portion of the
work shows the marvelou, nlcety OF the
human touch--for much of this work is
determined by feelings. The operator )
fingers precede and follow the ivory
spatula, cooking "fulnesses and COM
peling scantiness," and doing all so
carefully that in the jennings of the twelve
sections, each with its two edges, and all
of them on curvatures, there is not the
displacement of IA fine line of single
meridian, the shading of an islet, nor the
ou line of coast misplaced or disturbed
This work is not like the transfer work on
our porcelain that so much delights the
modern aesthetic eye, with occasional break
where the mandarin's umbrella is separat-
ed as though he had used it AS a .jointed
rod in fishing for suckers, and the fan of
the oblique eyed girl appears to have be-
come Chinese paper.hY and to have left
the handle for an aerial flight The hand
work on the school globe requires very
careful manipulation and every globe is d
work of conscientious endeavor.
But beyond this work of covering the
plobe most of the construction is machine
and operative labor. The equators and
meridianal circles are cast from metal,
marked by machinery, and all the metallic
wo, k is that which can be seen in any well
ordered machine shop. But the perfect
result is AS nearly accurate as any finished
product of human effort. And this work
lasts for years. The amount of it that can
he produced, even with all its nicely, is
shown in the fact that an establishment
employing only twelve hands turns out
yearly five thousand globes of from three
TO twelve inches diameter, besides telluri.
ans. orrerys, forms and solid for geomet-
rical objects teaching, and numeral frames
of colored balls for illustrating the frs
four rules of arithmetic and vulgar frac
tons. .-JournGt of Commerce.