The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1890-03-26
MANUFACTURE OF CORKS.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT A LIT
TIE KNOWN INDUSTRY.

Cork is the Bark of a Species of Oak
How 1t is Boiled, Softened and
Punched.
There is a veil of mystery hanging over
a cork mandatory which is difficult TO
pierce. OF the twenty factories in this
country none will receive visitors. Their
employees labor behind barred portals and
only differ from State charges in not wear
ing barred clothes. OF these twenty fac
tories four are in this city, four in Bos-
ton, three in Lancaster, Penn, three in
Canada, one in Baltimore, one in Pitts
burg, one in Norwich, Conn, and the
rest in unfrequented places. Six import
ers feed these concerns with stock.
A cork factory is an odd place. Scarce
" sound comes from the buildings
where the industry is carried on. Noise
less 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 a species
of oak which grows abundantly in Portu-
gal, 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 number of laborers are turned
loose in the wilderness and the barking
begins. Incisions 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 pro-
cess. When dry it is cut, scraped,
trimmed and put up in bales like cotton
for shipment The bark varies in thick
ness from half an inch to five inches, and
the price fuctuates from three to thirty
cents pound.
At the factories it is placed in a square
box and steamed to soften it, so that it
can be easily worked. Then it goes to
the saw and is cut into long strips. These
saws are different from ordinary saws, in
asmuch as they have no teeth. They are
provided with a razor-like edge instead
They make 1000 revolutions a minute,
and if one should be so unfortunate as to
feed his finger instead of cork, amputa-
tion would be Just rs complete and clean.
From the saver the strips go the punch.
ing machine. This is simple piece of
mechanism, furnished with punches of
all skies, from three -eighths Of an inch to
five inches in diameter. II is operated
with a lever and does its work as fast as
man can handle it. The stripes are
punched with the grain and it requires
no little Judgment to guard against i'm
| perfections in the bark. 1t is here that
the greatest waste in the material is ex
perienced. From a strip of bark a tritit
over a foot long only dozen corks car
be made, and half of the material is lost
! But the waste does not end here. 1t goe!
tagging the cork all over the factory
| Even those that are so successful as to bt
moulded into a useful form have to bt
sorted and a 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 considerably lessened the manufac.
turer's loss.
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 this interesting industry. Not Sc
very many years ago the only tapering
machine known was an ordinary man and
his knife. Now handmade corks are
unknown. This finishing machine is
nothing more or less than a lathe, the
knife of which moves after the manner OF
an old-fashioned apple-peeler. The corks
are put into an iron hand, which conveys
them to a imaginary mouth, when uT
comes the knife and the shavings fly.
The finished cork then drops out of place
to make room for another. When run.
ming the machine resembles a hungry
man. Its capacity is about 100 gross pei
day.
But bottle shoppers are not the only
things which are made of cork. Many
specialties, such as cork washers of vari-
Gus sizes, caps for pocket TASKS and'kero-
sene oil cans and sliced corks are manu-
featured also. Sliced cork is used fol
insoles. 1t is also used in silk machinery
where friction occurs. The cork washers
are fast taking the place of rubber one.
and are now considered the only thing
with which TO pack valves, as the trouble
some oil, which eats up rubber, has no
effect on cork.
Before uses were discovered for the
waste some hundreds OF tons were burned
up every month, and thousands of dol.
lars were lost in this way. Things are
different now, however All the waste
is shipped to this city and made into life
preservers, cork jackets, cork sprinkled
paper, in which glass is packed, and lin
oleum. This pulverized stuff is also ex-
tensively used to pack Malaga grapes in,
being handy, safe and light. Bed mat
tresses and yacht cushions are also made
of the shavlngs, and are superior to
those made of other materials. In fact,
they are so superior and come so high
that but few can afford the luxury. Every
well-furnished yacht, however, is thor
oughly equipped with them.-NeO I0rk
Tribune.