The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1894-07-26
C0RKS AND lungs.
An Imported Article That Almost Every
body, Even the Poorest, Uses.

cork-wood IL used as In America. At a
rough estimate 1t 10 probable that over
one hundred thousand bales are annu-
ally Imported. The leading purpose for
which II Is used Is for forming bungs
and shoppers for bottles and other ves-
sells containing liquids. but great deal
Is also employed In the manufacture OF
life presarvers. cork jackets and belts.
and In the construction OF llfe-boats.
On account Of Its lightness It is often
used for the soles Of shoes and for hat
Innings. Artificial legs and arms are
made Of It. bicycle handles and POM
mels In leather dressing. Cork was not
used for stopping bottles until the end
of the nth century. though Horace
speaks Of the Romans using 1t as a
stopper for their wine vessels.
All the cork-wood imported into
America comes from Spain and Portu-
gal. There are cork groves In South
America, but they have not been under
culture as long as the European ones.
and the wood Is consequently coarse
and inferior In quality. Algiers has
fine cork-wood, but the cost Of trans
porting 1t such a tremendous distance
renders it practically unavailable for
the American market.
The climate Of tine United States Is
perfectly adapted to the growth Of cork
wood. and large plantations have been
started In Florida and California. but a
tree attains the age Of twenty years be-
fore the first cutting takes place, and
coarse in texture. 1t can be used only
for rustic work or as a tanning sub
stance. At the second stripping of the
trees the bark Is still so coarse as to be
only fit for making floats for nets, &c.
AS the operation Of stripping the trees
occurs only once in every ten years, 1t
will probably be at least forty years
before the American cork groves are of
any practical use. In the mean time
the United States will have to depend
on the cork groves of Spain and Portu-
gal.
Cork is brought from Spain by vessels
which return with grain, and thus d.
minish the price of transportation The
cork-wood is put up in bales weighing
from $50 to $50 pounds. The pieces are
cut varying from half inch to two
and a half inches in thickness. The
stripping of the trees takes place in
July and August. Two cuts are made
around the stem, one little above the
ground and the other Immediately un-
der the spring Of the main branches.
Then four longitudinal incisions are
made, the utmost care being taken not
to injure the inner bark. The cork is
afterward removed in the sections into
which it is cut by inserting under it the
wedge-shaped handles of the instrN-
ments used in making the incisions.
After the outer surface has been
scraped and cleaned the pieces are fiat
tened by heating them over fire and
submitting them to pressure on a fiat
surface. In the heating the surface is
charred and this closes up the pores,
and what is called nerve" is given to
the wood.
The quality of the cork-wood i'm
proves with each successive stripping,
| and the trees thrive under the opera
tion for about one hundred and fifty
years. The tree reaches an average
height of thirty feet.
In cork factory the first work that
is done is asserting the wood according
to the diameter; the wood Is then taken
to the boring machine, where the in
strument which bores the corks re-
wolves one hundred and twenty times
within a second, The cutting Of corks
by machinery has been found to be q
matter of much difficulty. owing to the
cutting edges becoming blunt and the
necessity Of keeping them sharp. A
great deal Of the work is still done by
hand labor, but Scotch firm intro
duced a machine which cuts corks and
bungs Of any diameter up to three and
a half inches, either parallel or tapered
by the aid of which man can turn of
six gross of corks per hour. The taper.
Ing machine is often run by little girls
as 1t is very easily managed. A ANAL
spring forces the corks up under cir.
| cular knife, which runs on a level, Their
drops into basket below. The gir;s
are employed to feed the machines. II
eight hours sixty or seventy-five gros,
| Of corks can be tapered.
They are then carried to the sorting
benches and graded as to quality. Tit
| best quality are used for prescription
corks. A great deal Of judgment is re-
G"ircd for sorting, ar girls are moi
generally put al this work untik theJ
have had five years training at tie to-
i,ering machines. The corks are mex
put up In five-gross packages for tn
trade, and range in price from twt
cents to five dollars gross. The bag
that the corks are put up in are gene
rally made in the factory by the girls
muslin and burlap being bought b,
the case and bale for that purpose
The bags vary in size from four inche
to four feet square. The largest corl
factory in the United States is In Pitts
burg: the next largest is In Lancaster
Pa. -
All corks, except pickle, mustard an
sauce corks. are cut across the grain o
the wood, so as to prevent the pores be
ing exposed to the air. Large corks
such as pickles. mustard, &C.. have t.
be cut the other way Of the wood OF
account Of their size, but wax IS gene
rally used in fastening the corks Il
these bottles.
Couslnly Affection.
In a recent number OF the Pail Nal