The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1889-12-21
The Making of a Flag.
boston Advertiser

The other morning an Advertiser man
happened into the establishment of l. w.
Wheeler & Co., on Commercial St., for the
purpose of cleaning an idea or two concern
ing the making Of flags, this being topic in
which the Advertiser and its constituents
are particularly interested at the present
time. He was courteously received by II. A
Wheeler of the firm, who entered into de-
tailed description Of the ms and outs Of the
business.
There are but two concerns in Boston now
who manufacture and sell flags, Wheeler &
Co., being one and James Martin & Son the
other. Formerly every little awning maker
in the city kept flag or so on hand for
possible customers or made them to order.
But it didn't pay and one by one they gave
it up.
The greater part, If not all the bunting
used in flag making in this country, comes
from the mills of either the New England or
United States Bunting Co. in Lowell. The
staple is the very best long. wool-the
ordinary kind is no good-which adds largely
to the cost. 1t is spun and woven by special
machinery into webs Of red, white, blue.
green, yellow and black, and is done up in
four yard rolls, IS inches in width.
The process of making .. 5. flag is ap-
parently simple one, but in reality 1t re-
quires more than little judgment and q
great deal of experience on the part of the
workers. The stripes are cut out of the red
and white rolls by a machine, one, a, dozen
or 80 at a time as required. This used TO be
done by hand, but 1t took so long and in
volved so much waste of material by irregular
cutting that the machine was devised.
In making the union the stars are cut by
hand, the operatives cutting around tin
pattern of the required size. One who
knows how" can get several more out Of
piece of cloth than novice. The holes in
the blue ground are made in similar fashion
and the white stars inserted and sewed in.
In very large flags the blue is not cut at all,
but the stars are fastened ON in pairs-one
on each side-so that there are "a instead Of
A altogether.
where they make their flags when business
presses, and also special work, but ordinarily
| 1t is all done in Somerville, under the super
vision of one of their agents. The work is
executed by women at their homes, each
| doing special part. 1t takes experience to
know how to sew flags-s0me can learn to do
passably we'll in a year. others never at all.
Flags vary considerably in size, measur-
| ing all the way from 3x2 to 40x26. 2lx12
| Is the size most generally used on steamers
and merchant ships; coasters and schooneTs
take rather smaller ones. The big, 4Ox2e
| fellows are for campaign purposes only and
| are as large as can be handled practically.
| They cost $40 each. Trade in flags is not a
| lively one, the principal booms coming on
the fourth of July and during political cam
paigns. A good flag lasts for such long
while that there is no such thing as renewal.
The flags Of foreign countries, with the
exception of that of Great Britain, are made
| to order, as are the ensigns used by yachts
men, hotel keepers, decorators and others.
The firm design patterns as well as make
them and their taste is generally quite
satisfactory The international code Of
signals calls for 10 different flags which are
of course kept in stock. MesseTs. Wheeler
are just finishing two beautiful flags of the
new Brazilian republic for the consulate
The design is the same as the U. s. national
| banner, except that there are several stripes
of alternate green and gold and there are Is
white stars on blue ground in the union