St. Paul daily globe., 1888-07-08
ABOUT CHEAP CHAIRS
Interesting Chances Through
a Sample Minneapolis Man
ufactory.
Why Strong and Servieeable
Chairs Can be Turned Out
so Cheaply.
Steam Power and System at
the Bottom Of All Cheap
ened Work.
How Chairs are Made--Reada-
BILE Description Of an In
teresting Process.


H s9sbfssiaass 3Ta sss5S sss ss15g s5E5gsi sS+ #
they are very serviceable, and more
than one person has often wondered
now they can be made and sold so
cheapiy. 1t you have ever seen such a
cbalr turned out of a factory, with hun
Greds just like it, you would soon un-
derStand how they can be sold cheaply.
Inc process of making a chair is an in
tereStlng one and worth a trip to fur
nlture factory and time to see. One of
the chairs could not be made bv hand
for less than 81, and even then the
Workmen would not make decent living
wages. But as the chairs are made now
nearly 1000 can be turned out in one
day. But let us go to a furniture fact
tory and follow the wood of which the
chair is made right through the mill
from the time it comes in as raw ma
terlal until it goes out finished chair.
HOW CHAIRS ARE MADE.
Most OF the wood of which chairs are
MADE comes from Wisconsin, all ready
to be bent into shape and put together.
On being received at the mill it IS piled
IN the yard, where it remains from two
to SIX months, being given time to sea-
son thoroughly. The legs, all roughly
turned Oh the Bailey lathe, are kept in
one pile and the rungS in another.
Then in another pile are all
the bars which run, when the
chair is completed, from the
seat to the top of the curved back. The
wood which forms the curved back is,
III the first place, long, round piece of
wood. probably an inch in thickness.
When the manufacturer desires to make
chairs he makes out bill, as it is
called, of all the material needed. This
bill is written on long fat piece of
board and contains the number of
and the dimensions of each piece of
wood which goes into the lot of chairs
to be made. This bill goes from man to
man, who has anything to do with max
ing the chairs, and is finally returned
to the office, while the completed chairs
are sent out to fill orders or placed in
the storehouse, there to remain until
wanted. First of all, when the bill for
chairs comes from the Office, it
goes to the man who has charge
OF the seat preparing machine.
He at once goes to work and arranges
the machine so as to saw the planks the
right length. 1t would be a hard mat
ter to get planks wide enough to make
the seat i'll one piece, so it is made in
three pieces. After these three pieces
are cut the right length, they are dried
in large oven, then passed to the gluer,
whose business 1t is to glue the three
pieces together, He CLUES eighteen or
twenty at time, and when all the seats
are finished he sends them to the plan
er, who smoothS OFF the rough edges and
neatly rounds the corners so that there
may be no sharp edges or slivers left to
tear dresses and cause untold profanity.
RplnO hnIChnd harn % -,
man running boring machine. Each
seat is placed under the auger in sue
cessiOn and quick as flash the holes
for the legs and back are bored. Then
the seats, as yet without the finishing
touches upon them, are taken up stairs
to the chair room, where a man takes
one after another and runs them over
rapidly revolving knife, which cuts
the hollow in the center. When the
seats come from this machine they are
rough and show marks of the knife.
TO SMOOTH THEM
they are taken by another man and held
against rapidly revolving belt, covered
with solution of glue and fine flint
stones, which removes in an instant all
traces of roughneSS. This done, the
seats are piled one upon another in one
corner of the room, ready to have the
But all this time the men who attend
to the legs and the rungs of the chairs
have not been idle. When the order
came in they at once hustled around and
prepared to do their part. so as not to be
behind the men who made the seats.
When they took the legs and rungs into
the mill they found them all tritle too
long to go into tho chairs the Way they
were, so one man set big buzz saw,
and made mark on the table, and plac-
ing the legs and rungs on this table,
pushed them against the saw and cut
them just the right length. some eight
or ten at time. Now and then he
would come to defective piece. This
he would fling in pile by his side. This
pile was afterward taken away and
sold among other refuse mill wood.
AS soon as the legs and rungs were
sawed the right length, the rungs were
taken to a man in charge of a drilling
machine. He took one leg at time,
and placing it under the auger applied
the power. In less than two seconds
the hole for the top front rung was
bored. BY sliding the leg few inches
he placed it in the right position for
boring the hole for the lower ring.
Next he turned the leg on its side, and
by aquick motion threw it on different
slant, and bored the holes in which to
place the. side rings. The peculiaritv
of this boring machine was that all the
holes were bored on a small incline. so
that the rungs, when placed in the legs
would cause the four legs to
form square smaller at the
top than at the bottom. AS
the legs they were taken into the room
where the seats lay piled in the corner.
After leaving the machine where the
legs and rungS had been sawed the
right length the rungs were all carried
to a large round trough, and thrown in,
hundreds upon hundreds at time.
When the trough was half full the lid
was closed and the trough set whirling
at a rapid rate. The rungs inside ratified
until one could scarcely hear himself
think. Finally, after the trough had
been rolling for some minutes, the
power was thrown off and the lid and
the rungS removed. All the rough edges
and sliverS had been worn off, and the
small pieces of wood looked as though
they had been
FRESHLY SANDPAPERED.
They were carried into the room where
the seats and legs lay, and deposited in
a heap near the legs.
AS soon as the legs have been depos-
tied here man comes in with his sleeves
rolled up and wearing big apron, COW
ering him from his neck to his feet.
Taking his stand near a big pot of boil
ing glue, he grasps four legs and four
rungs, and after dipping the ends of the
rungS into the glue, places them firmly
in the holes in the legs. When he sets
the pieces down again they stand alone
and need only the placing Of the seat
upon them to be complete chair. He
fixes six bottoms this way and
then piles them together. This he
keeps up until the whole lot is finished.
While he has been doing this two men
in another room have been bending the
backs. When the workmen receive the
backs they are in the shane of a long