The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-01-06
OYSTER LONGING.
The Various Hand implements I'm
Uss-TOngs for Deep Water.
From the Baltimore Sun.

From the Baltimore Sun.
Easton, Dec. 2S.-The old-fashioned
hand oyster rakes used by tongmen are
twenty feet deep, and even at that depth
only the most expert and muscular OYSTER
men can make a good days work. There
are two kinds Of these implements-the
rakes which any country blacksmith can
make. the heads and teeth Of which are
forged by the smith. and the teeth, which
are curved, are welded to the heads at the
proper angle. A strap is welded to the
ton bar of the heads, and bolted to the
wooden shafts This Is the Oldest style
of ovster-catching hand tools, after the
"paWs" or "nppers," made TO catch SIN
gle oysters where the water Is clear enough
and shallow enough for them to be seen.
The iron-headed rakes We're followed by
The yankee rakes," which are called
fongs. These, although Massachusetts,
invention and first used in yankee wa
tors were brought into the Maryland
Chesapeake by Virginia discrepancies.
These tongs have wooden heads,
straight bar of some hard wood, fastened
to the shafts at fixed angle The teeth
are straight iron spikes driven through the
wooden heads. For them to work wen the
angle Of setting them must be neatly cal
culated OF course il is understood that
the whole tool is composed OF two levers
(cailed shafts. working on a common full
crum. which is thole-pine piercing each
shaft at one-fourth of the distance from
the head. and binding the two shafts to-
pather. The first described work more
effectively in deep waters than the yam
kee" heads DO
The oyster outfit of tongsman's canoe
. Dir.p Of m nair Of
tongs a pair of nippers, a culing board,
several cullng hammers, a couple of half
busbeI baskets and an iron half bushel.
Formerly any old piece of iron was good
enough for a cullIng hammer; for instance,
an old gate hinge harrow tooth or
piece of fire tongs. Hammers manufac-
turpd for the purpose, with wooden ham
dies. supplanted those rude tools. The pro-
cess OF culIing now, however, is largely the
niokfng out of the small oysters and dead
sbeus The hammer IL not much used.
A leather glove for the right hand and
stick are the most useful culling tools.
The patent tongs, the use OF which is
now so much discussed, and which are in
me legislature and the courts, is the lat
eet development of hand power for CATCH
ing oysters The innocent tongsman who
considers the scrapers and dredg-
ers his natural enemies IS
1uzz1ed when he uses his
natent tongs to know which or what he rs
"a tongsman, a dredger or a scraper. The
courts have decided, however, that he can
nae the patent tongs ana be tongsman
Elm and that their use Is lawful under
HE toneer's license. Since Judge Lloyd's
Jacieion about the legality of their use, at
Ioaet a hundred of these tongs (or pair of
tonos as one Is usually called, have been
roade i'm Talbot county, and that many
l',,sterrnen are at work with them in Tai
XII waters. Any good country blacksmith
can make these implements. They cost
from, S1O to $50 each, the price being usu-
at1,, S1O for a tool with ten pairs of teeth,
ia Il pair extra for each additional
pair up to twenty.
The construction is simple. The iron
.tafts are welded to the heavy heads and
,are stout teeth; they are joined in the
cenfer by a fulcrum pin. Stout ropes are
nassed through eylet holes in the upper end
~ each shaft The Other ends of these two
zones are brought together. and at the
noint of junction a single rope is fastened
irhis is the machine To operate II an arm
20 securely fastened and braced to one
~ the masts OF the canoe. AT
each and there Is "a pulley. The
single rome passes through each pulley, and
is brought down and fastened TO a Wind
lass ana cranks near the step Of the mast
The tongs are pulled up by this apparatus
and a man at the windlass can raise
very heavy weight, They sink