River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1885-08-06
FURNITURE WITHOUT GLUE

"These chairs are practically indies
tructible," said q representative of a
firm which manufactured brentwood
furniture, as he picked up chair and
hurled it on the floor with all his might.
The chair bounded high in the air, but
came back into its original shape with
out a sign of crack anywhere. 1--WE
use no glue, and consequently our
work stands any climate he added.
"Our firm were originally lumbermen,
but about forty years ago we went into
this kind of work, and now our eight
factories turn out from four to five
thousand chairs day. The wood used,
and it is the only proper one, is the
Austrian beech, a beautiful, straight
grained wood, which is really the
standard wood of Austria. The sticks
are turned down to the right size and
taper, steamed and bent, the iron
screws and sockets put in, and the chair
is ready to be vanished and put to-
gether 1t used to take us over an
hour to do the steaming, and the wood
was weakened by the process. Now
we do it by patent process in three
| minutes. and the grain is actually rem
dered closer and the wood strengthen
ed by the treatment. Then the screws
are put in while it IS soft and the wood
fairly grows around them.
1--WE have specimens where we've
had to dig the screws out. You could
not split the stick; it was just like pa
per pulp. The wood never shows any
tendency to 90 back to its original
shape, and it never warps. All our
work is hand-polished; there is no shell
lac varnsh used. BY taking the chairs
apart three dozen can be packed in the
space of cubic yard, and rescrewed
together in a few minutes after I'M
packing. In price they equal the ordi-
nary domestic chair, costing $50 a doz-
en-. They are finished in rosewood,
ebony, mahogany, and walnut imita-
ton colors and in the natural beech
color. Our chairs were introduced in
this country at the time of the centen-
NAL. They were first used in saloons
and cafes, for which they are especial
" fitted, their indestructibility coming
in well in case of free fight, but they
are beginning to be used in private
houses. Besides chairs, we make bed
steads. hat-racks, cradles, lounges, and
TRAN market, but it does not pay to
export them.
After leaving the Austrian the re-
porter wandered down into Park place,
and listened TO the representative of
a well-known firm of rattan furniture
makers. Rattan furniture is an es-
sentially American institution" said
| this dealer. Occasionally we send a
| few of the more costly chairs to En-
gland, but the home market takes all
that we can supply. There are two
firms engaged in the business, one in
| Wakefield and the other in Gardiner,
Mass. Our chairs cost from So to $50
each. Rattan is also beginning to be
used for screen-doors, mating. etc.
Mr. Vanderbilt has his japanese room
lined with it, | believe. Rattan grows
wild in swamps in the East Indies,
where no white man can live. At the
| Joints grow leaves and sometimes flow
ers. It is cut by the natives at all sea-
sons of the year and shipped to US in
twelve-feet lengths. The smallest size
is one-eighth of an inch in diameter
and costs 81 pound. From this it
runs down to Il cents pound for that
about one-half inch in diameter, and
then the price goes up to 20 cents for
the largest, which never exceeds an
inch in diameter.
The bark forms the cane that is
woven into seats, and the pulp fur
nishes the skeleton of the chair. This
is steamed and then bent, the cane is
woven about it by hand, and the chair
is completed by coating of shellac.
| The business of importing rattan is
| large. The firm which controls the
trade started with $4,000 capital. 1t
IS now worth millions Yes, / have
seen a good deal of brentwood furni-
ture. The chairs are the most uncOm-
Portable things ever created, and they
are as homely as a rail fence. They
can build them only in one style. The
rattan chair is the only thing for a pa
! triotic American to sit in.
The firms that manufacture furniture
out of rattan also use willow for the
same purpose. The process is similar
in every respect, excepting the finish
ing coat of shellac varnish, which is
omitted when willow is used. The
same material is employed in Madeira
| for making furniture and knickknacks,
and at one time the goods were inn
ported by large firm on Grand street,
| but the styles did not take as well as
/ those turned out by Americans, and
now they are only brought to this
country by ship captains who wish to
| fill out their cargo with some light but
bulky merchandise. -Ne10 York. Iri-
b4He.