The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1897-05-27
BILLIONS OF TooTHPltks.

-
Made by Machinery In Maine Chiefly.
By Hand in Portugal and Japan.
Nobody knows how many billions of
wooden toothpicls are made and used
in this country every year. The aggre-
gate is so enormous as to be practically
incalculable. And to the total of tn.
domestic product must be added the
imported toothpicks.
While the output of this industry is
so vast, American ingenuity has in
vented automatic machinery until it re-
quires the employment of comparative
Iy few persons. Ninety-five per cent. of
all the toothpicks manufactured in the
United States are made from white
birch timber in Franklin county, Me-,
and yet scarcely more than hundred
persons are employed in the industry
in that state. Outside of the state of
Maine, the principal factories are in
Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and vest
ern New York. Some maple and poplar
are used in the manufacture of Ameri-
can toothpicks, but white birch is the
standard timber in all the factories.
The industry is a very simple one.
First, of course, comes the work of the
foresters, or lumbermen. In the forests
of Maine every winter there are great
camps of lumbermen engaged in telling
and hauling out timber for various COM
mercial uses. Whenever the foreman Of
white birch tree he orders it cut down,
and the main part of the trunk laid
aside to be reserved for the toothpick
factories. When enough logs have been
obtained, they are sent along down
to the boom nearest the factory, whence
they are hauled by teams. 10 show that
the vast supply of toothpiclxs comes from
very small proportionate quantity of
timber, it may be said that not more
than 5000 cords of wood are used in this
industry annually.
When the logs reach the factory they
are first stripped of their bark. The
logs are then placed on the trucks, NOV
ing on rails, and pushed up to the au-
tomato machines by which they are
cut into veneers. Veneers, as applied
to this industry, are thin strips of
wood of about the dimensions of an
ordinary piece Of blotting paper-that
is, the strips are about as thick as tho
toothpicks are intended to be and as
wide as the picks will be long. Extreme
care must be exercised in placing the
logs in the machine so as to have the
grain run straight in the strips. The
veneers are fed into a machine COM
posed of peculiarly shaped and rapidly
revolving knives, the edges of which are
as sharp as they can be made. This ma
chine works automatically and with
tremendous speed, and is so construct
ed that the finished picks come forth,
sharpened at both ends, at the rate Of
tens of thousands an hour. It requires
only few weeks for the factories to
turn out supply sufficient to meet the
demand for a whole year. Then the fac
tories are shut down again, to remain
closed until the following spring. The
wages paid to American workers in this
industry range from $3.50 to So. so day.
Most of the toothpicks made in
Maine come from timber that has been
seasoned in the open air. Picks of that
material retain something of the natur-
al sweetness of the birch and maple and
are soft and pliable while retaining suf-
ficient firmness. Kiln-dried wood is apt
to result in too much brittleness. caus-
ing sharp splinters to break off, which
Injuries the enamel of the teeth. Recent
ly some of the American manufacturers
have been putting up toothpicks in min
iature barrels highly ornamented by
carving or hand painting. These are
turned out At the same factories.
The best toothpicks made anywhere
in the world come from Portugal. They
are whitfield by hand from orangewood
splints by peasant girls, the only tool
used being an ordinary jackknife
These picks are as smooth as ivory and
will not break into splinters. They are
expensive. The girls who make the
picks receive less than ten cents day.
AS the duty on foreign picks is only IS
per cent. they can be sold here for less
than picks of similar quality could be
manufactured in this country, despite
the improved American machinery and
skilled labor. The profit on American
picks is almost exclusively on the cheap.
er product. Some of the Portuguese
picks are highly ornamented with
hand carving. They are too expensive
for ordinary commerce. Small quanti-
ties have ben imported into this coun-
try on rare occasions for use at notable
banquets, or as unique specimens Of
handicraft.
Next to Portugal, Japan sends the
greatest supply of. toothpicks to the
United States. They are made by hand
from fine reeds. They, too, are sold in
close competition with the American
product, owing to the cheaper labor in
Japan. The casessin which the Japan
csc picks are Enclosed are fine speci-
mems of skill with the jackknife. They
are of wood, cut into strips as thin and
delicate as tissue paper, but very strong.
The cases are ornamented with hand
painted japanese scenes and are of
size convenient to be carried in the
vest pocket. The competition between
the Japanese and Portuguese makers on
the one side and American manu-
facturers on the other has become so