The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-06-11
AN HOUR IN A BASEBALL FACTORY.
No Wonder the Spheres Are Like Stone
Chat with a Manufacturer.

~ oPhNACS EAAO hAaNC Oh1
Chat with a Manufacturer.
New York Tribune.
''The baseball manufacturing business has
had a rapid but prosperous growth said a man
ufacturer recently. ut is confined to a few
men. and probably will not be encroached upon
by spectators. There are in the United States
to-day only eight factories of any importance.
and yet these are entirely sufficient to supply all
the baseballs that are wanted in this country.
Recently there has been a sort of a boom in
the ball market. This is caused by the adoption
by clothing houses throughout the country Of
the custom of ~givingto juvenile purchasers base
balls as presents. Wanamaker, of Philadelphia.
ordered %, 900 for this purpose, The balls are
OF different grades and prices. The kind that
are given away are, Of course, cheap but quite
durable. Perhaps you would like to see how
basebalis are made. Follow me and | will show
You the whole process"
On the upper floor of the establishment sat
several men with baskets of dampened channels
and buckskin clippings at their sides. Before
each workman stood a stout piece of ioist. in
the end of which was inserted a mould, hemis-
pherical in shape, in which the balls are formed.
Taking a handful of the cutting from the bas-
ket, the workman pressed them together in his
hands and wound about the mass a few yards
of strong woollen yarn. Placing the embryo
ball in the mould, he pounded it into shape with
a heavy fiat mallet, and then wound on more
yarn and gave the ball another pounding. AT
ter testing its weight on a pair of scales and its
liz 0loh % bbRC nlCdSuIO Hc UuItW tuB Ddll
into a basket and began another. When the new
ly-made balls are thoroughly dried they are car
RED to the sewing-room on the floor below
where they are to receive their covers. Forty
young women sat at tables sewing on the covers
of horsehide. Grasping a ball firmly in her left
hand, with her right hand one of the young
women thrust a three-cornered needle through
the thick pieces of the cover and drew them
firmly together. In less than ten minutes her
work was completed. A smart girl can cover
two or three oozen of the best and
eight dozen of the cheaper grades of balls
in a day. The wages earned weekly range from
81 to 50. The balls are afterward taken to the
packing room, where the seams are smoothed
down and the proper stamps are put on. The
best balls are made entirely of yarn and india
rubber.
my brother was one of the pioneers in this
business" said the manufactures. was the
inventor OF the two-pieee cover now in general
use throughout the country. If my brother had
only patented his invention, the members of our
family would now be wearing diamonds instead
of bits of white glass in our shirt fronts. Ball
covers are made, almost without exception, of
horse hide, which costs three dollars a side. We
used to obtain our supply from John Carl, a
leather dealer in the Swamp, for nearly thirty
five years. We are obliged to go to Philadelphia
now, there being no merchant here who keeps
horse-hide leather. The capacity of our factory,
when we get our new molding machines in
working order, will be about Is, 900 balls daily.
each machine being expected to turn out 1000
balls a day."