Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1890-02-26
HOW CORKS ARE MADE.
Interesting Facts About an Umpire
tentious Industry.
The Only business Which Employs No
Brokers or Go-Betweens, the Manu-
facturers Being Their Own Agents
and Selling Their Own Goods.

difficult to pierce. or the twenty fac
tories in this country mono will receive
visitors. Their employees labor behind
barred portals and only differ from
State charges in not wearing barred
clothes. OF these twenty factories four
are in New York, four in Boston, three
in Lancaster, Pa, three in Canada, one
in Baltimore one in Pittsburgh, Pa,
unfrequented places. Six importers
feed these concerns with stock.
A cork factory is an odd place.
Scarcely sound comes from the build
ings where the industry is carried on.
Noiseless machinery whirls with great
rapidity; the only sound heard is that of
escaping steam. Cork is soft and
elastic, as every body knows, and is the
bark of q species of oak which grows
abundantly in Portugal, Italy and Spain,
principally in Spain. The trees grow
to a prodigious size and live to the ripe
old age of $50 years. At fifteen they
begin to bear and continue to furnish
new crops of bark every five years. The
harvesting occurs in the early spring.
AT that season Of the year large num-
Der of laborers are turned loose in the
wilderness and the barking begins. In
cisions are made around the trees and
the bark is stripped off. 1t is then
boiled to take out the sap, after which
it passes through the pressing process.
When dry it is cut, scraped, trimmed
and put up in bales like cotton for
shipment.
At the factories it is placed in square
1NSN.y b
can DO easily worked. Then it goes to
the saw and is cut into long strips
These saws are different from ordinary
saws, inasmuch as they have no teeth.
They arc provided with a razor-like
edge instead. They make 1000 revolu-
tions minute, and if one should be so
unfortunate as to feed his finger instead
of cork, amputation would be just as
complete and clean.
From the saver the strips 90 to the
punching machine. This is a simple
piece Of mechanism, furnished with
punches of all sizes, from three-eighths
of an inch to five inches in diameter
1t is operated with lever and docs it's
work as fast as man can handle it.
The strips are punched with the grain,
and it requires no little Judgment to
guard against imperfections in the bark.
1t is here that the greatest waste in tho
material is experienced. From q strip
OF bark trifle over a foot long only
dozen corks can be make and half Of the
material is lost. But tho waste does not
end here. ltgoes tagging the cork all
over the factory. Even those that arc
40 successful as to be nodded into use
full form have to be sorted and goodly
number are rejected. SO that waste IS
one Of the characteristic features OF the
manufacture of cork. Within the last
few years, however, uses have been
found for these scraps which have con-
gidcrably lessencd the manufacturers
loss.
After being punched into circular
form the corks go to the tapering ma
chine, where their final preparation
comes. This is by far the most interest,"
ing part of this interesting industry.
Not so very many years ago the only
apcring machine known was an ordinary
nan and his knife. Now handmade
forks are unknown. This finishing ma
,htne is nothing more or less than a
athe, tho knife of which moves after tho
manner of an old-fashioncd apple-peelcr
The corks are put into an iron hand,
which conveys them to an Imaginary
mouth, when up comes the knife and tho
!havings fly. The finished cork then
1rops out of place to make room for an
other. When running tho machine re-
Bcmbles hungry man. It's capacity is
about ono hundred gross per day.
But bottio shoppers are not the only
things which arc made of cork. MANY
specialtics, such rs cork washers OF
various sizes, caps for pocket TASKS and
Kerosene oil cans and sliced corlts arc
manufactured also. Sliced cork is used
for insolos. 1t is also used in silk ma
chinery where friction occurs. The
cork washers arc fast taking the place
Of rubber ones and arc now considered
the only thing with which to pack
valves, as tho troublesome oil, which
eats up rubber, has no effect on cork.