The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-08-12
Ml1lllf Eagle
WORK THAT GIRLS DO.
FlLEMAKlNG REQUIRES MANY SKILL
Full YOUNG WOMEN.

The Work Is Trying on the Body-Good
Eyes Are Necessary, and Girls Seem to
BE tho Steadiest Ones for the Delicate
Notwithstanding About Files.
The file trade is peculiar in this way,
said prominent file dealer the other day.
1t depends on the other trades. Although
in nearly every business file is used, and
these tools are always in demand, when it
comes to such trades as carriage making,
where files are necessities, the buster the
carriage maker the more files he needs and
the brisker the file business.
If the machine shops are busy we are all
the buster for it, and they are not so much
the worse for US. Sometimes we are busy
all the year round, for when one trade is
dull the other has great deal to do. Some
of these factories use an immense number
files, safe manufacturers generally buying
in quantities of from twenty-five to fifty
dozen, and l have in mind some well
known tool works where twenty to thirty
boxes, or 81, 900 worth, of files are used ey-
cry season.
This is not exceptional, but merely gives
a slight idea of how many files are in use.
The firm of manufacturers from whom
we buy turns out from 5000 to COCO dozen
files week. Formerly, say about forty
years ago, all files were made by hand, but
with the enormous demands Of today ma
chimes are a necessity. BY hand a file
maker can turn out about two dozen 14-inch
files daily.
This is far less than machines can do,
and the result is that hand made files are
twice as dear as machine made ones which
compensates any loss of fineness and dura-
bility in the machine made file, because if
the latter were to wear out twice as fast as
the former use of it would not cost any
more The fact is that the hand made files
do last longer than the others, but then the
machine made files are cut more accurately.
Some hand cut files are still used, and
especially for very fine work, such as
jewelers. and dentists work, and these in
struments are made by the French-Swiss
girls. They take pieces OF good quality
steel-all files must be made of good steel
and with chisels and hammers run the
cuts along the metal
WHY GIRLS ARE PREFERRED.
The reason girls do this work is because
their hands are lighter and more .ccurate
than mems, and the work they do is positive
ly beautiful Some of it is so delicate that
you could run your hand over the file and
not perceive any roughness, and sometimes
piece of steel no thicker than a sheet OF
paper is cut for file on both sides of it,
cut by hand with hammer and chisel and
unerringly, as you may know, for single
miscut might spoil the whole thing.
1t is not easy to imagine this, and one
would also think that the work is too ar
duous for girls, but it is not. Almost every
flemaker | ever saw was healthy, and
never knew one to wear glasses though
plenty Of them are old men.
The only difficulty in fiemaking is the
STOPPING position in which the worker
must sit all day. The steel he works is
not as hard as the file on the market. The
metal is made as soft as possible for the
worker in this way: When the bar of steel
enters the factory it is forged into pieces Of
metal the sizes and shapes of files.
Then about 100 of these are put into an
alright furnace, when they are heated to
a dark red heat, which is the best for an
healing. Then the fire is turned off and
the files are left to cool, a process some
times lasting two or three days; in fact,
the more slowly the cooling is done the
softer the metal.
When the files are removed from there
they are taken to the various machines,
where they are to be cut, and years back
this was the stage of the process when they
were given over to the men to be cut
The men always cut the same sizes of
files, because when a man was used to and
expert at cutting one sort of file he could
not cut any other. If he were workman
on rough files and tried to cut a fine one he
would always make it too coarse, even
while thinking he was making it too fine.
FACTS ABOUT FILES.
Each man had his set of chisels, which
were of one size, and with which he did his
cutting. He first made one stroke, and the
pressure of the chisel against the part OF
the metal raised by this incision gave him
guidance for the next stroke. In this way
these men became so expert that they did
not have to look when they were cutting
and yet they made no mistakes.
After the machine has cut the files they
are r.heated for tempering, and as the OBJ
ject is to harden them as much as possible
as soon as the proper heat has been at
tanned the files are plunged into cold brine.
If an even heat is not kept on the files they
crack and are worthless, and this is what
makes the temperiug process the most diff
ficult and trying of all, for sometimes the
files do not crack till some days after they
are packed away. The effect of bad tenn
perin9 is always a crack in the file, and if
the file is of good steel the crack is length
wise.
No matter how many files factory turns
out it is bound to test every file for soft
spots, which is done in this way: A piece
of soft steel is run along each side of the
file and if there is a soft spot it will not
file the STEEL but allow it to slip over. A
skilled man notices this Immediately and
the file is cast aside.
Ii these files were allowed to go TO mar
ket machinst might MAIN his hand in
filing a saw or something of that sort.
These things were also guarded against IN
handmade files, which for some reason or
other used to average about sixteen OF
eighteen inches in length, while machine
made files average about fourteen inches.
Files are made anywhere from two to
twenty inches in length, but of late years
the work of the large files has been super
seeded by the emery wheel, and so has the
work of cumming saws--i. e, sharpening
their teeth.-Cincinuati Times Star.
Mrs. Wesley and Her Children's Education
Mrs Susanna Wesley was very much in
advance Of her age in one particular, and
that was in waiting till her little ones
were five years old before teaching them 10
read. Many babies in those days were
taught the alphabet At two, and could read
quite aueuuy at three, while of noted
Scotch divine his biographer tells that at