Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1886-09-09


same stroke. The lead in the foreign
pencil lies wholly in one-half of the
wood, the other slip being put on as a
cover, as nearly every body has found
occasion 10 know by the covers com.
ing off and leaving an unpleasantly flat
surface; but the American method has
groove equally in each strip. Accord.
ingly the two strips are glued alike.
Filling the leads is done by girls, sit
ting at brass-covered tables. The first
takes grooved slip with her left hand
and bunch of leads in her right
Spreading these out in her fingers like
the sticks of fan, she dexterously lays
them in the grooves and passes the
filled slip to the girl at the left, who
puts over it another slip which has just
received a coating of hot glue from a
brush welded by third. Any two
slips fit together, and the united pairs
are laid in row and pressed together
in an iron frame by screw, and the
row of slips is left to dry. The rough
ends Of the slips and the projecting
parts are next ground smooth against
wheel covered with sand-paper, and
are then ready for the most interesting
and characteristic process of all-that
OF separating and shaping.
The foreign maker still makes each
pencil separately. His glued slip is
one pencil, and he formerly shaped it
by hand, but now does that by plane
driven back and forward by machin-
cry. Yet it is still one at time with
him, and after shaping his pencil he
has to smooth it with sand-paper. Not
so in the American factories. The
work of separating and shaping them
in done by the same operation of a
single machine. The slips are fed one
by one under revolving cutter. which
separates and rounds them on one side
by cutting away the superfluous wood.
As they come from under the cutter
they are turned over and passed under
a second one, which does the same
work on the other side, so that they
fall into basket in continuous
stream, six wide, of finished pencils.
The familiar operation Of planning is
essentially that of cutting with a
pocket-knife. The planning machine,
on the contrary, uses revolving knives,
| which make a succession of little
gouges in the wood. These gouges,
which would otherwise leave the sur
face very irregular, are made to leave
it tolerably smooth by following one
another so closely that the gouges be-
come one long gouge, or cut; but usual
| lxy tho hoard 10 ct,nnnth annnnh n
answer for nice work without further
finishing. Yet so perfect is the opera
tion of these revolving cutters that
they leave the surface not only true,
but so smooth that the finest sand
paper in ordinary use would scratch it.
The machine separates and shapes
probably fifty pencils while the foreign
maker is making one, and requires no
body to complete its work. As the
streams of pencils fall six abreast they
are finished, in point of utility, and
are ready to be sharpened and put
to use.
Before they leave the room and sew
eral times afterward they are counted
by means of a counting-board. This
is merely board on which are fastened
two strips of wood about four inches
apart, having in each strip 144 grooves
Catching up a handful Of pencils the
workman rubs them along the board
once and back, thus filling up the
grooves, the pencils lying IN them as {
pen lies in its rack on the inkstand
and he has counted gross of twelve
dozen without possibility of mistake
and in five seconds time. BY simi
lar device, the employment of tray
having q number of round impressions
of the size of a coin, into which thu
pieces are shaken, gold coins are some
time counted.
In Difference to custom and the habi
of associating the desired blackness O
the leads with that of the wood th'
natural beauty of the cedar is concealed
in the standard commercial grades b,
coloring. After being immersed il
dye the pencils 70 to the very curiou
little neutrality-suspicious.. From
little hopper they settle through side
wise, and are seized between two wheels
which thrust them endwise, one at
time, through a hole in a tube we
with varnish from above. Each pen
Gil. pushed on by its follower in tn
single-file movement, emerges from
the tube and drops on ahorizontal belt
1t then moves slowly with the belt som
thirty feet, drying as it goes, an
when the belt, reaching the pully, re
leases it, drops in basket. Ifyou plac
pencil in the mouth, pushing it wei
back, and then, COMPRISING the lip
! tightly on it, expel the air, it will shoe
out with some force. In a similar man
: ner this comical little machine spit
out from its cylinder a stream of pen
ellis at the rate of one hundred pc
minute.
The other operations are of mino
consequence. consisting of shaving
little from the ends, sharpening Gel
tain styles on wheel, stamping eac
with its proper marking, and tn
, , various manipulations in packing. Th
|, /, patent package is stroke of inventiv
genius. The dozen pencils are groupe,
each in its groove, around an ovs
piece of wood. The. oval package
, more snowy than thes=ound, and eigh
! ! pencils can be slipped out and replace
at will without disturbing it Th
same mechanical skill runs all throug
the work, all the pencils being exactl
uniform in size, length and finish, an
even the stamp falling on all in exac
: ly the same relative position.
Except the lead-makers and the a
tendants on the shaping-machines th
operators are girls, the machines bein
so automatic that neither strength nc
T skilled labor is requisite. The work
4 singularly cleanly. The shaping-m'
chimes are covered by metallic hoe
connecting with pipes, through whiC
Q ali the shavings and dust are sucks
!. down by blower to the engine-roon
where they are used for fuel. Thu
e the floors are kept free from lite
The work is in no respect unhealthfu
$ and the factory is peculiar in bein