Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-02-12
A CHAT on CORKS.
A BUSINESS THAT IS RAPIDLY GROW.
ING IN IMPORTANCE.
Thousands of Sizes and Grades-Keeping
Out Heat with GranaIsted Cork
Refuse Used on Picture
frames-Wooden Ware.

Its funny what prejudice VIII do.
said a well known cork merchant I'VE
are compelled to import every year sew
eral thousand dollars worth of hand cut
corks. These come chiefly from Ger
many, They are not so good as the ma.
chine cut corks of our own country, a
they vary in size and are but approx
malely round A machine cut cork will
always iii the bottle il is made for. let
some of our old German brewers. bottlers
and druggists are SO pre- udiced in favor
of the products of fatherland that they
will buy hand cut corks every time. of
course, price may have something TO do
with it, for il is a peculiar fact, and one
showing how cheap labor can get that
those corks cut one by one by hand in
Germany, are brought over here. tariff
paid. and then sold little cheaper than
our machine-cut corks The cork bust.
ness is growing very rapidly. This is
great country for bottled goods. and bot.
ties must be corked with something
There are twenty. three cork factories in
the country. but the one in Pi,tsburg. of
which we are the branch. works up
little more than one half of all the bark
imported every year.
cork. you know. is the bark, not the
wood, of { cork oak All our barks
come from spain and Portugal There
they keep cork woods Ii doesn't kill the
tree 10 take its bark away, and il can be
skinned every six or eight years About
81 zoo, 00J Of the raw bark is brought TO
this country every year There is no
tariff on it, out tariff of % per cent on
the manufs ctured product The impor-
tations Of manufactured corks run about
$i30,000 year The cork has to be
steamed up before il is cut Corks are
uade in thousands Of sizes and grades,
from the sizes of pin head up TO foar
meters in diameter. We keep 500 81 es
and grades in stock There's a little cork
that sells at d cents gross. and Yet every
cork has TO be handled three times in the
manufacture-once in cutting once in Ia.
pering. and the lssi time in asserting one
grade from the others.
None of the bark that comes over in
the ships goes to waste. We used 10 burn
the refuse but we know better now Up
between the joists. right under the roof OF
this building. We have packed fifteen
inches of granulated cork. Last summer
this upper toor was rs cool as any floor in
the building The heat cant get through
that cork protector. The palace car
builders use the same stuff to pack under
tuC upOIs vi tEtil CdIo W uCduGib
sound and under the roofs TO keep the
heat out / sold fifty car loads of grsnu.
lated bark to certain gentleman 10 pack
un6er the roofs of his refrigerator cars rs
a non conductor of heat lie has saved
thousands of dollars in ice by the use of
that substance, and has hoped that none
of his competitors would catch onto the
scheme But he hoped in vain
The finest of the refuse is used by pic
ture frame makers in decorations They
sprinkle il on their bronzed or iapanned
frames See that picturey Well, this
old castle along the Ihine the rocks,
hills, trees, vineyard, flowers and birds
an exquisite landscape. is it not.-all
made from CORK, pressed like papier ma
che. 1t is German novelty. and a
neat one. Fruit and egg cases. ice houses
and ice machines, are often packed with
the grsnulated cork, which costs only
cents a pound.
I'VE beat the old world at cutting
corks, but IL is rather strange that Amer
ica should import tons of straw Yet we
do every year buy immense quantities OF
straw in Germany in the form of bottle
covers. These covers cost IS per ]. 200,
and they are hand made They cannot be
made for one fourth the sum in this coun
try, until somebody gets up a machine to
do 1t with We import someth ng like
100, 600 of these covers every month All
of these little tinfoil caps for wine and
soda bottles come from Paris A New
York firm has tried TO compete. but they
can't do it We have $50, 900 al the depot.
Just arrived from Paris They are shipped
in Theoretically sealed cases
But this country leads in wooden ware.
Perhaps you don't know il, but the best
wooden ware maker in the United States
carried IN business in Chicago for twenty.
five years he is now over in Michigan,
in the timber country, making faucets.
bungs. bung starters. wooden shovels,
cork drivers. and vinegar measures and
tunnels. each out of one piece of wood
without joint or seam. As for bungs.
Cincinnati might properly be called the
bungtown of America. rs there are made
all the bungs used in this country One
factory there ships 200 barrels of bungs
every day.