The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1886-09-18
WILLOW BASKETS.
The Process of Manufacture Employed In
the Large Factories.

The Process of Manufacture Employed In
the Large Factories.
We're you ever in awillow basket fac
tory Fewpersons nave had the pleas
ure of witnessing the making of will
low basket. had often longed to know
D how they were manufactured, and hav'
ing lately an opportunity to visit bas-
ket'making establishment, l watched
the process of manufacture with much
interest.
The shop or mandatory was large
barn-like structure, wherein many boys
and girls were employed. The process
is a simple one. A log of beech or bass
wood OF considerable length, and per-
haps eighteen or twenty inches in thick
ness, is thoroughly steamed, and then
suspended horizontally in the open
framework of an iron table, by gud-
geons fastened in the ends. The log is
then made to reyolve by steam power.
A stout knife, of the length of the strip
required, and gagged to cut the requs-
lite thickness, slices off portion from
the surface of the log. As the knife is
constantly advancing toward the log,
the shaved portion drops off in the shape
of a continuous sheet, which either
breaks Off itself, or is broken off by the
attendant workman into pieces Of few
feet in length The sheets thus broken
of are taken to another iron table close
by, and placed between grooved rollers,
when by ratchet-wheel arrangement,
long knife descends perpendcularly,
clipping off at each stroke strip of the
width desired.
These strips, still wet and thus soft
and pliable, are next carried to benches
to be woven together by boys and girls.
AT the back of these narrow benches
rise frames, inclined backward at an an
gle of ten or fifteen degrees at the top,
and from the top also projects a strip OF
board, of two or three inches in width,
with bits of wire an inch or twoi length
fastened in them regularly, of the same
distance apart as the width of the strips
Now when the little operator goes tC
weave her basket-for the girls work
much faster than the boyS--With quick
motion she places upon her uprigh
frame four of the strips, placing then
between the alternate wire divisions fol
one side of the braid and places STRIP
across them at the bottom, and theI
quickly puts over that the transverse
strips, and the four other alternate
strips for the upper side of the braid
Then, with flying fingers she inserts thu
remaining strips with unerring eye. II
and out she weayes the strips almos
as fast as your dazzled eye can follow
her little hands. She selects and throw.
aside the defective strips in an instant
In few moments the ends of the strips
comprising about half of the square, bu
forming smaller square, are woveI
and thrown upon the floor, where there
is a pile which grows at the rate Of per
haps four or five a minute.
A pile of these woven squares is mex
taken to a bench, to front of which i
fastened, projecting toward you, hol
low box of steel OF sheet iron, whose eX
ternal size and shape exactly correspon,
with the interior dimensions of tn
basket to be made. Upon the end 0
this box the operator places a strip @
steamed elm, slipping its edge unde
projecting bits of iron, for the inner rir
at the top of the basket. He the
places the woven square upon the en-
of the box nearest him, and having
shallow iron box or follower, of tn
same size as the outside of the baske
but only about a couple of inches j
depth, standing Immediately behind, b
lever he places it quickly upon an
over the fiat side of the braided square
thus doubling up the sizes and ends
the basket in shape. Then above til
shallow box he whips the loose enc
through each other to complete I'll
bradmg of the upper part. This don,
he seizes another strip of elm and lay
it over the inner elm slip, with II
basket between them, and then, wit
his mouth full of tacks, proceeds rapiC
ly to drive the tacks, turning the bask,
over as he proceeds, and clnching II
tackS on the iron box underneath, an
in a minute his part of the work is con
pleted and the shaped basket joins i
fellows in huge pile on the floor
Itonlv remains that the ragged, pr
jectng ends of the strips be shaved {
with knife, and the handles whiC
have been steamed and bent into shap
be put nplace when the basket is cor
pleted. They are then packed into mes
of dozen each of large market basket
The best are sold at the factory at thi
ty-iive cents a nest, or less thI
three cents per basket Other baske
for various uses are made in a diilere
manner, yet the process is much Il
same.-M T. Observer.