The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1884-03-21
Corks-Hew Made.

ele by machinery is in itsinfsncy. Until
q comparatively recent date corks were
cut by hand. and it took inexperienced
work man . whole day to finish thou
sand marketable corks with q great
waste of material. To-day a machine
run By steam and attended by small
girl does ffty times the amount ofwork
with unerring precision and the small
est possible waste of material.
Cork is one of the most useful art
cles in the world, and although known
to and used by the ancienfs on account
of its elasticity, irnpenetrability by
liquids and gases and resistance to ex-
terror influence, no real substitute for
1t has vet been found. Wood and glass
lack the principal propensity of being
elastic, and rubber imparts to the liquids
it is intended TO preserve sulphurous
taste and musty appearance. But the
usefulness of cork is not confined 10
the manufacture of shoppers for bottles.
1t is manufactured into insoles for the
protection OF. the feet in wet weather,
jackets for rheumatic persons, life-pre-
servers on vessels, life-boats, hats, CT
gar-boxes, coating for millstones in
feed-mills, LAYERS for anvils to prevent
the heavy jar, and finally the cork
shavings are used in upholstery, in the
manufacture of the color known as
Spanish black. and as non-conduct;ng
material in the construction OF ice
houses and refrigerators. Quite re-
Gently the discovery was made that
eork-shavings in the interstices of par
A.. e
well asatmospheric influences. Thus
the corkwood is one of the many pro-
auctions of nature whose usefulness
seems limited only by the common enc
my of all of natures products-tire.
To return to the manufacture of
corks. a description of the cutting
process will be found of interest. The
large plates of the raw material of the
trade are assorted as to thickness CORE
spending with the length of the corks
to be manufactured and place. in steam
chests. where they are rendered pliable
by the moist steam ANY rough ex-
crescences that might he on the outer or
inner surface of the plates are then re-
moved by steam planer which gives
an even thickness to the plate. The lat
ter is next cut up into strips of width
cores bonding to the diameter of the
top of the cork to be obtained. and then
the cutting process begins. Corks for
tie bottling of wine and beer are not
tapered, but are cut out of the strips
straight by n circular knife run upon a
piston driven by steam. The operator
simply presses the strip of cork against
the knife, which cuts the cork out even
" and quickly and deposits it in n chute
leading t. the receptacle for the fin
ished corks. The process is very SIM
pie, and good operator with iirst-class
material finishes $1,000 straight corks
in a day with ease. All the shavlngs
are carefully collected and sold TO- the
various industrial purposes named. The
finished corks are assorted as to quality;
those of the finest grade to be without
any flaw, and are ready for the market.
Tapered corks. mostly for smaller bot
ties and phials, and calculated to be
used oftener than once. have to pass
second cutting process Like
all the work in a modern cock-cutting
that of giving conical
shape to the cork is done by machine
driven by steam. The automatical cut
ter is rapidly-revolving horizontal steel
disk running under clasp, into which
the straight-cut cork is inserted by
hand. The clasp can be regulated to
press the cork against the sharp edges
of the disk in any angle corresponding
to the hape to be obtained. The fin
iShed corks drop into one receptacle
aid the shavings into ano her. Where
two clasps are attached to the machine
two attendants are, of course, required.
The cork tree belongs to the class of
oaks, and there are two trees. quer us
s86tr and qtyercHs Occidentdlis. that from
time to time she'd their bark or outer
coating. This coating is hecork ofthe
trade, nut the bark shed by nature is
not marketable, because it does not con-
tain any sap, which is necessary to re-
tain the elasticity Cork for Industrial
purposes is gained by peeling. After
tree is three wears old the peeling NAV
but cork of that age Is OF an
quality, and the peeling would
kill the tree. Trees OF twenty years
give cork of fair quality, and the quail
ity increases until the tree has gained
the respectable age of IGO or $50 years,
when the bark becomes hard and un-
wieldy. Two circular incisions are made
around the trunk of the tree and con-
nected by perpendicular cuts allowing
ths, two half-circles to be removed. Care
must be taken not to disturb the fiberor
inner bark, which keeps the tree alive.
his peeling process can lie repeated on
the same tree at intervals of from eight
to ten years, yielding cork plates from
one TO four inches in thickness. The
cork pieces are pressed into
plates while still moist from the tree:
then the rough cCatings are removed
and the plates are immersed in boiling
water for several minutes and pressed
again After that they are piled into
bundles, fastened by iron hoops, and
are ready fer the market. The raw ma
terial will sell from four to seventy cents
per pound. according to quality and
thickness, and is not subject to any i'm /
port duty. The full-grown cork tree
reaches height of seventy feet and |
diameter OF i've feet. 1t grows in the /
almost impenetrable forests of Spain, |
the southeastern part of France and Al /
yiers and Senegambria in Africa The |
quality of the cork depends very much /
On the lay of the land, that exposed to
the greatest heat being the finest. Zach |
Tree Yields cork of two different dimen- /
sions. the Lark on the northern side of 1
! tree icing thinnest. Experiments .
nave been made to cultivate the cork 4.
1ak in Florida and California, but so far .
,hey have not resulted in success.
Their. is good prospect. however, that
,ork of q marketable quality may te OBJ
aimed in the former State as the oak /