The Portland daily press., 1892-06-11
MANUFACTURE OF GLUE.
How the Stuffis Made in Large Es-
Establishments.
An Important Industry-what Glue Is and
the Many Uses to Which 1t Is Put
Queer Machines-Chicago as
Glue Market.

Especial Chicago Letter.1
Glue, glue, glue, glue.
From the crown Of your hat TO the sole Of your
Most everything is glued with glue
We sleep in 8 bed put together with glue,
And we eat at q table stuck together with glue,
We're rocked in cradle put together with glue,
And when we are dead, you'll find 1t is true,
That we're laid In coffin that's glued with glue.
Has the reader ever thought of the
many and diversified uses of glue? Wood.
work of all kinds, furniture of every
description; railway cars, carriages and
vehicles of all sorts are held together by
it. 1t is on the walls and ceilings of our
homes. Kalsomine is mixture of Paris
white and glue, and all paper hangings
are only white paper kalsomined.
Then, there are emery wheels and the
sizing of petroleum and turpentine bar
rels. Writing paper gets it's surface
from glue as do the glazed paper and
oil-cloths. Even the lead-pencn with
which this article is written is held to-
gether by it, and the ink-roller used
upon the press which prints these let
ters is composed chiefly of it.
Chapters might be written upon the
many uses of glue.
Again, there is probably no material
manufactured for commercial purposes
of which so little is known, not only
among consumers, but the dealers them
selves.
Chicago has become one OF the lead
ing glue markets of the world. 1t is
estimated that there is more glue ham
died in this city than in any other place
on the globe. Still, it is comparatively
a new industry here; but this, like all
other interests of the worlds fair city,
has kept pace with the rapid increase
of commerce and manufacture for
which Chicago is justly famous.
One hundred thousand barrels of glue
are annually handled here. There are
five glue manufactures Of Importance
in Chicago, the leading one of which
turns out daily 175 barrels, or 5000
nually.- Over 600 persons are employed
in this factory.
How glue is made is most interesting.
Many persons labor under the false i'm
preston that glue factory is dirty
and foul smelling place. But this idea
is dispelled by a visit to the place where
the glue stock is boiled. The odor here
is not disagreeable, as would be sur
missed, but on the contrary the boiling
glue stock sends out an aroma similar to
the kitchen at dinner time.
Pigs feet, heads of cattle, hoofs,
horns, hide clippings that cannot be
used FOR leather, are some of the raw
material from which glue is made and
is called glue stock This material is
dumped onto the floor of a large room
and sorted. 1t is then carted away to
the lining vats. These are huge tabs
or boxes capable of holding many thou
sands of pounds. The raw material is
saturated with a solution of lime and
water. The lime eats away the fatty
or partly decayed matter, leaving the
glue substance uninjured. After re-
naming in the lining vats for speci-
fed time, it is taken out and put into
the washing machines in order to
cleanse the stock of the lime. The wash
ing machines much resemble in shape
only a cylindrical mangler in use in a
laundry. The cylinders, or wooden
receptacles for holding the material to
be washed used in this factory are over
Sc feet in circumference, with capaci-
ty of many thousands of pounds each.
Heavy streams of clear water are forced
by. steam pumps through the center
of the mass in the interior Of the
cylinders which rapidly revolve. The
water permeates the stock and escapes
through crevices in the cylinders carry
ing with it all the lime and disinte-
grated matter, and until. when the
washing is done and the material is