The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1882-12-28
Door Knobs.

There is hardly any object that
everybody handles so frequently, finds
so necessary and yet thinks so little
about, as the door knob. A gentleman
who has all his life kept up an init
mate business acquaintance with door
knobs said recently concerning them:
All the door knobs in England form
erly were made of wood or cast iron
big, solid, heavy things-and for
time the American ones were the
same. But that could not last in this
country, where taste and inventive art
are active in the combination of the
useful and the beautiful for every use
in life. We soon commenced to
make our own door knobs, upon the
old English plans at first, but ere long
with other materials, and with an eye to
Improvement in form and color, begin
ming a progressive course of improve
ment that already puts us in this spe-
cialty, as in many others, ahead of the
world in the production of goods that
are at once beautiful, durable and cheap
enough to be popular. 1t was about
1912 or 1843 that the manufacture of
door knobs from clay was commenced
in this country. Clays that would
change their colors in baking were Sc
lected and mixed together, after being
very finely ground, pressed into molds,
baked to what is technically known as
biscuit, then coated with fusible COM
pound called "glaze," and rebaked at
sufficient heat to melt the glaze and
give them a CLASSY surface. They had
a dark notified appearance, were known
as mineral door knobs" and sold as
high as $1S dozen pairs, They still
have place in the market, but they
are worth now only eighty cents a
dozen pairs-the cheapest made.
The greatest stride in the progress
of doOr-knob manufacture was taken
in 1878 or 1874 The material en-
ployed is bronze, mainly composed Of
nine parts of copper and one of tin.
The molds prepared for il are made
with such extreme nicely and fidelity
to their pattern that they reproduce
lines as delicate as the veinings of a
tiny leahet, and the molten metal is
forced into them by screw pressure
while they are inclosed in a vacuum
box. The articles made in this way
are known as compression bronze
goods, and variety of claims to supe-
riority over other bronze goods are
made for them, the principal of which,
as far as the public is concerned, is
their beauty. Some of them are plated
with nickel and gold, nickel and silver,
or silver and gold in various combina-
tions. The most expensive are those
with combined decorations of enamel
and gold, which mount up to SIS or
SIG pair.
Not a great while ago, a rich
banker in Portland, Oregon, sent all
the way here to New York for the
door knobs for magnificent mansion
he was building. He wanted dozens
of knobs, but the highest num-
ber of any one kind of the same
size was three. In each room,
however, the design selected for
it was carried through large and small
sizes, wherever knob was used. He
also had the taste to select the three
shades of bronze in which fine knobs
are made, so as to harmonize with the
prevailing hue of the woods or decora-
tions of the apartments for which they
were severally designed
In some old European castles and
palaces one sees door knobs of silver,
and silver fnlaid with gold, but such
things are rarely if ever made now,
never in this country.-Ne1o York Sun.