St. Landry democrat., 1890-02-22
In a Cork Mandatory.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT AN UNPRETEN
TIoUs INDUSTRY.

TIoUs INDUSTRY.
There is a veil of mystery hanging over
a cork manu- factory which is difficult to
pierce. OF the twenty factories in America
none will receive visitors. Ihelr en-
ployes labor behind barred portals, and
ONLY differ from State charges in not wear
inc barred clothes. OF these twenty fac
tories, four are in this city, four in Boston
three in Lancaster, Pa, three in Canada,
one in Baltimore, one in Pittsburg, one In
Norwich. Conn.,, and the rest in unfre-
ouented places. Six importers feed these
concerns with stock.
cork factory is an odd place. Scarcely
a sound comes from the buildings where
the industry is carried on. Noiseless ma
chinery whirls vi th great rapidity. The
only sound heard is that of escaping steam
THE EARLY STAGES.
Cork is soft and elastic, as everybody
knows, and is the bark of species of oak
which grows abundantly in Portugal, Italy
and Spain, principally Spain. The trees
| grow to prodigious.esize and lives 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 har-
yestipg occurs in the early spring. at
that season of the year large number OF
laborers are turned loose in the wilderness
and the barking begins lncislons 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 IKE
cotton for shipment. The bark varlss IN
thickness from half an inch to i've inches
E,rl N
thirty cents pound.
At the factories, it is placed in square
box and steamed to soften it, so that 1t can
be easily worked. Then it goes to the saw
and is cut into long strips These saws
are different from ordinary saws, mas
much as they have no teeth. They are
provided with rszor-like edge instead.
| They make 1000 revolutions minute,
and If one should be so unfortunate as to
feed his finger instead of cork, amputa-
ton would be just as complete and clean.
From the saver the strips 60 to the punch.
ing machine. This is simple piece OF
mechanism, furnished with punches of all
sizes. fromssthree- Fights of an inch TO i've
inches in diameter, 1t is operated with q
lever and does it's work as fast as a man
can handle it. The strips are punched
with the grain, and it requires no little
Judgment to guard against imperfections
in the bark It is here that the greatest
waste in the material is experienced.
From q strip of bark q trit1e over TOO
long, only dozen corks can be made, and
half of the material is lost. But the waste
, does not end here, 1t goes tagging the
, cork all over the factory. Even those that
, are so successful as to be nodded into q
usefuluform have to be sorted and goodly
number are rejected. So that waste is one
of the characteristic features of the manu-
! facture of cork. Within the past few
years, however, uses have been found fol
these scraps which have considerably les
sened the manufacturers loss.
SOME OF THE THINGS MADE.
After being punched into circular form
the corks go to the tapering machine
where their final preparation comes. This
is by far the most interesting part of thi:
!, interesting industry. Not SO very many
years ago the only tapering machine
} known was an ordinary man and his knife
!. Now hand made corks are unknown. Thi!
! finishing machine is nothing more or les'
than lathe, the knife of which moves
after the manner of an old fashioned appl,
|, peeler. The corks are put into an iroI
! hand, which conveys them to an imaginar.
mouth, when up comes the knife and tn
shayings fly. The finished cork then drop
out of place to make room for another
When running, the machine resembles
hungry man. Its capacity is about 1O
gross per day.
But bottle shoppers are not the oDl,
things which are made of cork. Man.
specialties. such as cork washers Of varlou
sizes, caps for pocket TASKS and kerosen
3, oil cans and sliced corks are manufacture
: also. Sliced cork is USED for insoes. |
is also used in silk machinery where fric
, ton OCCURS. The cork washers are fas
! taking the place of rubber ones, and ar
! considered the only thing with which t,
; pack valves, as the troublesome oil, whicl
eats up rubber, has no effect on cork.
Before uses were discovered for tn
waste, some hundreds of tons were burne'
up every month, and thousands of dollar
: were lost in this way. Things are differ
! shipped to this city and made into Lift
: preservers, cork jackets, cork sprinkle
! paper, in which glass is packed, and limo
leum. This pulverizad stuff is also exten
: sively used to pack Malaga grapes in, be
ing handy, safe and light. Bed mattresse
q and yacht cushions are also made of tn
\ shavings, and are superior to those mad
i of other materials. In fact, they are s
superior and come so high that but fey
can afford the luxury. Every well fur
nished yacht, however, is thorough
equipped with them.
4 The cork business is probably the onl
a industry known to the civilized worl
: which has no broker, dealer or go bstweer
! But there are SO few manufactures, an
: SO limited demand for the goods, this
! such an individual could not exc out q
q existence in it alone. Consequently tn
: owners are their own agents and the
] make their own sales, mostly to druggist
= and mineral water bottlers, the corks bein
! put up in bags and sold by the gross
4 Men York Tribune.
q Immigration and Education.
5 In those States which have the large
naturalized vote, and in which this hs
been a potent factor, there are mol
churches, more libraries, more schools
better schools and more general INTEL
/, gence than are to be found in those Stats
G where the people are not only American
4: born, but the children of American. Dor
parents. AS rule, the poor among tt
!. immigrants have more education, are mol
! industrious and more used to continuor
n hard work than are the poor among natiS
i Americans, and consequently they gene
ally succeed in making living, while ~
latter frequently fail.-Judge John p. Al
i geld, IN the February Forum.