The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1884-03-29

berry, etc. The last named is wood Of
which but little is known or used but is
destined to come into use for finishing pur-
poses. 1t takes fine polish and in color
somewhat resembles white ash. The oak
and hickory is of the kind best adapted
to the use of agricultural implement
makers, as it is tough, and yet, like all
other products Of aluvial soil, and a com
psrAtively warm climate, easy to work. A
wagon factory located at Burling-
ton, Iowa, obtains its supply
of hickory from the Kentucky side of the
Ohio, opposite Cairo, the logs being put in
at little place called Wickliffe. Poplar is
used here also to considerable extent in
the manufacture of fruit boxes, the logs
coming from some distance up the Ohio
out of its numerous tributaries. A promi-
nent citizen informed me that he had re-
ceived raft of poplar logs that had been
foated out of the Cumberland river, all the
way from West Virginia. Manufacturing
establishments located here may thus take
their pick of timber from the forests of
Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Ohio,
Indian and Southern Illinois, bringing logs
from any of them directly to this place by
water. AS one gentleman enthusiastically
remarked, tive can bring white pine logs
from Wisconsin down here and saw them
up if we want to-"
A year or two ago the Singer Manufac-
turing Company sent out agents to look for
the most eligible location in the country to
establish factory for tie manufacture of
sewing machine tables. The search was
for spot where an lnexhaustible supply of
timber could be most conveniently OBJ
tanned, and Cairo was the place selected as
best adapted to fill the requirements. Va
rlous stories have been afloat ever since re-
garding the Singer company's experiments
with gum lumber as material for table
tops. Owing to the reticence of the com.
psny regarding its efforts in this direction
very little reliable information has ever
found its way to the public. 1t was with
particular qualification that l embraced
fortunate opportunity to visit the works
and inspect the method of working up and
treating this much abused and singularly
handsome wood.
The Singer company's plant consists of
factory and several acres Of ground, upon
which other buildings are to be erected as
the business develops. Gum logs are cut
by drag saw into the required lengths for
table tops and tie "bolts" dropped into
vats of boiling water, where they are
cooked until sufficiently "done" to work
we'll iu the veneering machines, in which
they are sliced up into strips, five of which
make an inch IN thickness. The fine, close
grain of the gum combined with its exceed
ing softness especiallw commends it for
this kind of work. The slices of veneer
are then taken to drying apparatus,
which is novelty in its way. Suspended
from the ceiling is row of what, for the
want of a better name, | will call iron
boxes, each of the width and
ength of the table top three or four inches
nick, hollow, of course. Through each of
hese live steam is passed by means Of feed |
nd exhaust pipes. Between them single |
trip of the veneer is placed and the whole
'attery, as it might be termed, clamped |
ogether by lever. The principle is not
mike that of the Noyes lumber dryer in
lse at the Pullman car shops and which
vas on exhibition at the National Exposi-
ion of railway appliances last fall. 1t takes
ust about twenty minutes to make the
trips OF veneer as dry as a bone, the boxes
,eing unchanged once or twice during the
process to admit of circulation of air and |
scape of the moisture.
From the drying apparatus the strips of
eneer 60 to the gluing room, where the
process consists ofputting five strips togeth-
II to form table top as follows: A piece
n which the grain of the wood runs cross
wise is laid down, and another, in which
he grain runs lengthwise, is passed be-
:ween two spongy rollers, revolving in
liquid glue, which give ita coating of that
sticky substance on each side, and laid |
upon the first one. Then another cross
grained piece, followed by another glued I
strip, the layer finished by the same kind |
If a piece as the first, making five pieces
n all, in two of which the grain runs
engthwise and in the other three cross
wise. A piece of sheet iron is laid over
the top thus formed, and the building pro-
cess goes on until a pile something like
three feet high is made, which is put into
a clamping machine, compressed and fast