The Hot Springs star. (Hot Spings [Hot Springs], Dakota [Dakota Territory, i.e. S.D.]) 1886-189?, 1891-03-13
HOW R h MADE,


rhs Only B1sansss which Enpaoys No
BROKERS' or 0o-Betwsens, the ManuA
1Aetursrs Being Theft 0wn Agsgts
and selling Thslr own OooAs.
There Is vail Of mystery hanging
over . cork mandatory which, &C.
cording to the New York Tribune, is
difficult to pierce. OF the twenty fac
tories in this country non 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,
one in Norwich, Conn.,, and the rest in
unfrequented places. Six importers
feed these concerns with stock.
A cork factory ia an odd place.
Scarcely q 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, IS every body knows, and is the
bark of a species Of oak which grows
abundantly in Portugal, Italya and Spain,
principally in Spain. Tho 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 Ave years. The
harvesting occurs in the early spring.
At that season of the year a large num-
Der of laborers are turned loose in tho
wilderness and the barking begins. In
cisions are made around the trees and
the bark is stripped of. 1t is then
boiled to take out tho 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 q square
box and steamed to soften 1t, SO that it
can be easily worked. Then 1t goes to
the saw and is cut into long strips.
These saws arc different from ordinary
saws, inasmuch as they have no teeth.
They are provided with q razor-like
edge instead. They make 1900 rcvolu-
tions a minute, and IL 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 60 to the
punching machine. This is q 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 q lever and docs its
work as fast. as q mar can handle 1t.
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 a strip
of bark a trifc over q foot long only a
dozen corks can be make and half of tho
material is lost. But the waste docs not
end here. 1t goes tagging the cork all
over tho factory. Even those that arc
SO successful as to be nodded into a USE
full form have to be sorted and a goodly
number are rejected. So that waste Is
one u inc characteristic features of the
manufacture of cork. Within the last
few years, however, uses have been
found for these scraps which have con-
siderably lesscned the manufacturers
loss. /.
After being punched into circular
form the corks go to the tapering ma
chine, where their final preparation
ONES. This is by far the most interest
ing part of this interesting industry.
Not SO very many years ago the only
tapcring machine known was an ordinary
man and his knife. Now handmade
corks are unknown. This finishing ma
chine is nothing moro or less than a
lathe, the knife of which moves after the
mannerofa an old-fashione ed apple-pcelcr.
The corlis y put into IN iron hand,
which conveys them to an imaginary
mouth, when upcomes the knife and the
shavings fly. The finished cork then
lrops out of place to mako room for an-
other. When running the machine re-
semblcs q hungry man. Its capacity is
about n hundred gross per day.
But bottle shoppers are not tho only
things which arc made Of cork. Many
s%pecialtics, such as cork washers of
various sizes, caps for pocket TASKS and
kerosene oil cans and sliced corks arc
manufactured also. Sliced cork is used
for insoles. 1t is also used in silk ma
chinerv where friction occurs. Tho
cork washers are fast taking the place
of rubber ones and are now considered
the only thing with which to pack
valves, as the troublesome oil, which
cats 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 dollars were lost in this way. Things
are different now, however. All the
waste is shipped to this city and made
into life-preservcrs, cork jackets, cork
sprinkled paper, in which glass is
packed and linoleum. This pulverized
stuff is also extensively used to pack
Malaga grapes in, being handy, safe and
light. Bed mattresses and yacht cushions
arc also made of the shavings and are
superior to those made of other nate
rails. In fact they are so superior and
come so high that but few can afford the
luxury. Every well-furnishcd yacht,
however, is thoroughly equipped with
them.
ASK FOR 1T