Evening journal., 1897-05-20
BY THE BILLION.
The Enormous Output OF Tooth
picks Each Year
s1aine Leads All other States in the
Output - Made by Hand in
PortGEnl nnd Also
Ia japan.
Nobody Know how manv biIIions of

IN lnls country every year 4 he dbSlt-
gate is so enormous as to be practically
incalculable. And to the total of the
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
~ few persons. Ninety-five per cent. Of
al the toothpicks manufactured in the
United States are made from white
birch timber in Franklin county. Nc,
and yet scarcely more than n hundred
persons are employed i'm the industry
in that state. Outside Of the state of
Maine. the principal factories are in
Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, ard west
orn New York. Some maple and poplar
are used in the manufacture of Ameri-
can toothpiclSs. but white birch is the
standard timber in all the factories.
The industry is q 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
a camp comes across a particularly fine
white birch tree he orders it cut down,
and the main part of the trunk laid
aside to be reserved for the tCothpick
factories. When enough logs have been
obtained, they are sent along down
TO the boom nearest the factory. whence
they are hauled by teams. To show that
theHast supply of toothpicls comes from
q 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. mov-
ing on rails, and pushed up to the au-
tomato machines by which they are
cut into veneers. Neneers. 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
]
grain run straight in the strips. The
veneers are fed into q 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. ltrequires
only a 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 $3.50 a 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-
fcient frmness. 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
y some of the American manufacturers
have been putting up toothpicl,s 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 jaclknife.
These picks are as smooth as ivory and
viii not break into splinters. They are
expensive. The girls who make the
picks receive less than ten cents a day
AS the duty on foreign picks is only 31
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 anC
skilled labor. The profit on American
, picks is almost exclusively on the cheap
er product. Some of the Portuguese
? picks are highly ornamented witt
J. hand carving. They are too expensive
3, for ordinary commerce. Small quaint
: ties have ben imported into this coun
{. try on rare occasions for use at notable
= banquets, or as unique specimens O.
; handicraft.
v Next to Portugal, Japan sends th'
+ greatest supply of tOothpiclSs to tht
l. United States. They are made by han.
from fine reeds. They, too, are sold il
close competition with the American
q product, owing to the cheaper labor il
4 Japan. The cases in which the Japan
o ese picks are inclosed are fine speci
}, mems Of skin with the jackknifo. The.
i are OF wood, cut into strips rs thin an
d delicate as tissue paper, but very strong
II The cases are ornamented with hand
painted japanese scenes and are Of
:, size convenient to be carried in III
y. vest pocket. The competition betweeI
(, the Japanese and Portuguese makers o,
q the one side and American manu-
\. facturers on the other has become s
y, keen that Mr.. Dingley has proposed 70
Y, the new tariff law q duty on foreig
); toothpicks almost twice as gHeot rs tn
,; one contained in the present law. A
Fl irnr,orfar of foDtlniclzg said racanf n