The St. Johns herald., 1886-11-18
MANUFACTURE OF ToOTHP1oKs.
4 PlR-s Who're They Are Made by the
 Million. and the Way They Are Made.

4 PlR-s Where They Are Made by the
 Million, and the Way TheJ Are Made.
 There are, have been told, but three toothpick factories In the United States. One of them is located at Belmont, Ale gany county. New York, just on the edge of the town and near the banks of the Genesee river.
 In going over most factories one is gen. erally ushered in at the wrong end that is, where the completed work is ready for shipment. This factory was no excep- ton to the rule but l will take you be- low stairs first and we will then work up- ward gradually.
 The factory makes two articles of commerce. .toothpicks, as already stated. and Rllumettes, or lamplighteFs. To commence at first principles.
 We started in the basement, and after exploring the engine room betook our selves to where the woodwork was in it's first stages. We found in this second loom piles of circular blocks of wood about sixteen inches in diameter by per haps five ia thickness. This wood was hard and "soft maple and pine.
 These are put into a revolving machine which strips ihem of their bark; they are then sent up to the first floor. Hero they are again put into another revolving machine whicn cuts them into fine strips which are then cut into the required shape for toothpicks.
 The picks :" are dropped out at ono side while the refuse falls from the other into a shaft and Is carried down to tho basement and subsequently, used for firing. Some are round, some square.
 This little machine which makes them appears simple enough to the uninitisted Lut in reality is quite comp. icated, con- iaining, weare informed, several hundred knives.
 These small articles of after-dinner service are then taken up to the Eecond story, where they are kept in Q heated room until sufficiently dry for packing.
 Descending to the first foor-fOr we have followed our miniature guide up stairs and dUwn-we enter a room where several girls and women and two or threJ boys are at work.
 0ne girl we find stamping thin paste board boxes with a press and tn .n fold ing these boxes by hand with q Tapidity impossible tJ be followed by the eye. The experienced fingers grow very nlm- bic.
 On the other side of the room girls were sorting and arranging picks and putting them in boxes. The work was executed with an alertness only acquired through long practice.
 The plan of arranging them in bundles preparatory to bOxin- IS this: From the large heap In front draw smaller quRn- tiLy, yet several times larger than the proposed bundle. These little sticks lay at sixes and sevens as confused as the most contrary pile of jack straws. The first motion Is to dIaw the pile toward the worker, the second to draw the hands across the pile laterally and carry ofI any offending sticks that lay tn their way, aud then close In the pile as the third motion, again scattering and arranging. ReiteratlnY these motions with more or less variation soon brings order out of chaos, and the pile grows beautifully less as compact, neat bundles assume tue desired shape and propor- lion. They wore then quickly boxed and thrown aside ready for the market.
 In the manufacture of the allumette the wood WAS cut into long strips of two different wldths. four and Q half inches for the narrower, and as l remember about eight Inches for the wide. and a thirty-second of on inch in thickness.
 These were then hung from beams In a drying room, and the draped. ribbon like effect of the room WAS very pretty. They were afterward put by the quantity into 8 cutting machine, attended by boy, whence Issued the useful allumetts ready for bundling and boxing.
 This factory IS not only one Of the "sights of Allegany county. but Indeed of New York State, for, to the best or my belief, itis the enly one in New Tork. -l Rochester Union.