Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-05-25

as toothpick. To be sure, its limited
dimensions furnish little room for COM
plicated elaboration, but it is an excel
lent example of the perfecting of SIM
pie things for ordinary use, which is
the crown of civilized arts and sciences,
says the Boston Traveller
In South America and in Portugal.
where time may be had at wholesale,
toothpicks with one end pointed and
the other wide and fiat, are made by
hand out of the firm white orange
wood. How Ing they have been made
10 one knows, probably toothpicks.
Ike hngerS,s were made before forks.
Like the quill pen, the quill toothpick
has had its day, which is not vet quite
closed.
Even the pin has been resorted to
with mounrful injury to enamel, but
the general favOrite is the wooden
tothpick. Explorers say that the shin
ing worries of the untransplanted
a bit of sharpened wood
But America is too hustling land
to allow any man the privilege of man
ufacturing his own toothpick. For
many years the orange wood picks
were imported and trey still are to
some extent. The imported supply is
reinforced by tiny, pin-shaped, Japan
csc picks of some tough wiry fibre,
packed in gay colOred straw boxes
In course of time the enterprisng
Yankee, in the person of a Mr.. For
ster of Maine, while in South America,
was impressed with the possibilities of
establishing this industry in the United
States. After spending tens of thous-
ands Of dollars in experimenting on
machines for the manufacture Of the
small Instruments of comfort, he at
length patented one in 1868, and set
UP the first factory in the United States
at Dixfield, Me.
There are now factories in Michigan,
Pennsylvania and New York, and a
new one is just ching established at
Deering, near Portland, Me.
The early tOothpicks were sold for
% cents package. Now those manu-
featured in Maine can be delivered in
st. Louis for 1 cent and mills a
package. To be sure, the doublepoint-
ed, round pick will still be 10 cents
a package, even with improved mach
inery instead of it's some what recent
price %.
This reminds one of the evolution of
the dmestic tOothpick, which started
with the well-knOwn shape of the same
Widt from end to end, but Oh one side
p1n
ed diamond.
This is still made in birch and in
poplar. The poplar is soft wood,
but the birch is a hard, fine grained
wood, the best adapted for this use of
any American wood of this latitude
Maple is sometimes used as a substitute
but betrays itself by the different col
orS that will show in bOXful, while
the birch are uniform in tint
Next is the round pick, tapering to
a point at each end. New machinery,
on the priciple Of the lathe has been
invented by the Boston company for
making these, and patent has been
applied for
Another kind is fiat, wide at one end
and tapering to a point at the other.
This shape is sometimes scented and
called the aromatic" pick. Joseph c.
Bridgman, the manager of the new
Boston company, showed the reporter
one that was scented five years ago,
and whose sweet taste and fragrant
Odor were still so strong as to conjure
visions of spicy Indian isles into the
prOSaic business hours.
There yet remains an evenly round
pick whitfield down concavely to make
fiat, wide ends
This does not end the evolution, how
ever. AS science has gone in for the
microscope since the triumphs Of the
telescope, so advertising has forsaken
the fronts of mountains and palisades
for the tiny side Of the toothpick.
This new company has also applied
for a patent on a machine which will
cut 10000 picks a minute and brand |
an inscription ON the side of each. The |
branding is doneby electricity to avoid |
the use of ink, which might prove |
objectional in the mouth. This is the
latest triumph Of science for the tiny
pick, and now the visitor at the worlds
fair will be exhOrted in a small way
to Drink Blanks Root Beer" at the
close of his dinner
Mr.. Brldgeman says that there is a
growing demand for the bette quail
ties, not only here but also in england
and northern Europe, where they are
ebginning to import from this country
Quiluls have been the English favori-
tes, and southern Europe still uses the
handmade pick from Portugal.
The new factory at Deering, Me-,
which is scarcely yet upder way is
IoOAoO feet, and has 100 horsepower
engine. 1t will employ from fifty TO
sixty hands.
The birch logs brought here are first
sawed across, making sections the
length Of a toothpick Then these are
pared around and round under water,
turning off a long continuous strip of
veneer the thickness of a pick This
is fed to the cutting and coranding =,
machine, which turns out the complete {
article. An especially good piece of /
wood is put aside for the finer kinds t
of picks. !
The output Of one factory last year /,
was 9,500,OOOO0O picks, the result Of
working 1000 cords of wood. The :
new factory will use from to or 10
cords of wood a day, making from 112
RI ono caSaS n day of which aboI1t 10