Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1886-08-26

/ eHC 1CstUS - uOuc Nv ylElS. S1t-
ting at brass-covered tables. The first
takes a grooved slip with her left hand
and a bunch of leads in her right.
Spreading these out in her fingers like
the sticks OF fan, she dextefously laws
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 coating of hot glue from a
brush welded by third. ANY two
slips tit 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 lowered 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 a revolving cutter, Which
separates and rounds them On one side
by cutting away the .,uperfluous wood.
AS they come from under the cutter
they are turned over aad passed under
second one, which does the same
work on The other side, so that they
tax into basket in a 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 succession of little
gouges in the wood. These gougcs,
which would otherwise leave the sur
face very Irregular, are made to leave
1t tolerably smooth by following one
another SO closely that the gouges be.
come one long gouge, or cut; but usual
ly the board is not smooth enough to
answer for nice work without further
finishing. Yet so perfect is the opera
ton OF these revolving cutters thai
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 nut
to use.
Before they leave the room and scv-
eral times afterward they are counted
by means of a counting board This
is merely a board on which are fastened
two strips of wood about fous inches
apart, having in each strip IA grooves.
Catching up handful of pencils the
workman rubs them along the board
once and back, thus filling up the
grooves, the pencils lying IN them as a
pen lies in its rack on the inkstand,
and he has counted a gross of twelve
dozen without possibility of mistake,
and in five seconds time. BY SINH
lar device, the employment of a tray
having a number of round impressions
of the size of coin. into which the
pieces are shaken, gold coins are some
time counted.
In Difference to custom and the habit
of associating the desired blackness of
the leads with that of the wood the
natural beauty of the cedaris concealed
in the standard commercial grades by
coloring. After being immersed in
dye the pencils go to the very curious
little varnishing-machincs. From a
little hopper they settle through side
wise. and are seized between two wheels,
which thrust them eDdwise, one at a
time, through hole in tube wet
with varnish from above. Each pen
Gil. pushed on by its follower in the
sing!e-tile movement, energies from |
the tube and drops on a horizontal belt. |
1t then moves slowly with the belt some
thirty feet, drying as it goes, and |
when the belt, reaching the pully. re-
leases il, drops in a basket. Ifyou place |
a pencil in the mouth, pushing it well |
back, and then, COMPRISING the lips
tightly on it, eXpcl the air, it will shoot
out with some force. In q similar man.
ner this comical little machine.spi
out from its cylinder stream of pen
ellis at the rate of one hundred per
minute.
The other operations are of minor
consisting of shaving a
little from the ends, sharpening Ger
-ain styles on wheel, stamping each
with its proper marking, and the
various manipulations in packing. The
patent package is stroke of inventive
genius. The dozen pencils are grouped
Zach in its groove, around an oval
piece of wood. The oval package is
more snowy than the round, and eight
pencils can be slipped out and replaced
It will without disturbing it. The
anne mechanical skill runs all through
he work, all the pencils being exactly
inform in size, length and finish, and
wen the stamp falling on all in exact
Y the same relative position.
Except the lead-makers and the at
endants on the shaping machines the
'peratorS are girls, the machines being
o automatic that neither strength nor
killed labor is requisite. The work is
cleanly. The shaping-ma-
hines are covered by metallic hood
onnecting with pipes, through which
Ii the shavings and dust are sucked
own by a blower to the engine-room,
where they are used for fuel. Thus
he floors are kept free from litter.
he work is in no respect unhealthful,
nd the factory is peculiar in being
by the aromatic odor of the
ed cedar. Brooklyn Eagle.
BOOSTING HIGH.
he -Four Bad Boys Whom . Citixer |
xCotched" in His Cherry Trees.