Morning journal and courier., 1886-10-21
aAre you a graduate of pharmacya'
MANUFACTURE OF ,EoOTHPECKs.
Place Where They Are Made by the
 NHiliiOn-A Unique Industry.

Belmont Correspondence of the Rochester Union and Advertiser.j
 There are, I have been told, but three toothpick factories in the United States. One of them is located at Belmont, Allegheny county, N. Y., just on the edge of the town, and near the banks of the Genesee river. In going over most factories one is generally ushered in at the wrong end, that is where 1 the completed work is ready for shipment. l This factory was no exception to the rule, l but will take you below stairs first and We will then work upward gradually. The fac l tory makes two articles of commerce-tooth picks, as already stated, and allumettes or 1 lamp lighters. To commence at first prin- ciples We started in the basement and af- l ter exploring the engine room betook our selves to where the woodwork was in it's first 1 stages. We found ill this second room piles of circular blocks of wood about sixteen inches in diameter by perhaps five in thick ness. This wood ''hard" and ''soft maple and pine. These put into q reEol- wing machine, which strips them of their bark; they are then sent up to the first floor. l Here they are again put into another rerol- wing machine. which cuts them into fine strips, which are then cut into the required shape for toothpicks The "picks" are dropped out at one side while the refuse falls from the other into shaft and is car ried down to the basement and subsequently used for firing. Some are round, some square, This little machine makes them appear simple enough to the nuinitia- ted, but in reality is quite complicated, con- taining as we were informed, several hun dred knives These small articles of after dinner service are then taken up to the sec- ond story, where they are kept in heated room until sufficiently dry for packing.
 Descending to the first fioor-for we have followed our miniature guide up stairs and down-we enter a room where several girls and women and two or three boys are at work One girl we find stamping thin pasteboard boxes with press and then folding these boxes by hand with rapid ity impossible to be followed by the eye. The experienced fingers grow very nimble. On the ether side of the room girls were sorting and arranging the 'fpicks" and put ting them in boxes. The woIk WAS execu- ted with an alertness only acquired through long practice. The plan of arranging them in bundles preparatory to boxing is this:
 From the large heap in front draw a small
 CT quantity, yet several times larger than
 the proposed bundles. These little sticks
 lay at sfsixes and seyens" confused as
 the most contrary pile of jackstraws.
 The first motion is to draw the pie to-
 ward the worker, the second to draw the
 hands across the pile laterally and carry off
 any offending sticks that lay in their way,
 and then close in the pile as the third mo
 tion, again scattering and arranging. Reit-
 erating these motions with more or less va
 riation soon brings order out of chaos, and
 the pile grows beautifully less as compact,
 neat bundles assume the desired shape and
 proportion. They were then quickly boxed
 and thrown aside ready for market. In the
 manufacture of the allumette the wood was
 cut into long strips of two different widths,
 four and a half inches for the narrower,
 and as I remember about eight inches for
 the wide, and thirty second of 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 cutting machine attended
 by boy, whence issued the useful allu-
 mette ready for binding and boxing.