The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-08-16
CLOTHESPIN FACTS.
A LOgCOsting So Cuts Up into $4,000
CIOthespins, Worth Nearly $I0O.I
lFrom the Chioago Tribune. }

(FrOm the chicago tribune.
''The longer you lif, - as a philosophic
German once remarked, "the more you
fndt, by chimineddy oudt!''
For instance, there's the common,
everyday clothespin, on which no man
has ever been able to improve, any more
than he has improved upon the wheelbar
row or the old fashioned wooden rolling
pin. Who would imagine that there was
anything about the clothespin that was
worth finding outP The writer was
passing little grocery where a box of
clothespins was among the things dis
played outside.
''How much for clOthespins today?" he
asked of the grocer.
-Four CENTS " was the reply.
-Four cents apiecep"
f4Apiece Great hickory, mol Four
cents dozen ~
sAh-h-hl Are you a good judge of
clOthespinsY'
II should say so I've made more than
million OF 'eml'; replied the stOrekeep-
err. eve followed the cIothespin, sir,
In all the processes OF it evolution, from
the growing tree to the polishing box.
Say % exclaimed the dealer, to look at
that pin you'd scarcely believe that the
of them for cent and have a profit of
more than so per cent at that, would your
''But he can do it. He can Wh1ttle out
clothespins at the rate Of eighty minute
How. Easy enough. All he's got to do
is to take his maple or birch log and go
to work. Say his log is ten feet long and
foot through He won't have to pay
more than 50 for it. Ii he pays any
more than that he don know his bust
ness, That log will whittle up into II, QUO
clothespins. 1t will take the man two
hours and half to chew that log up Into
clothespins, which is at the rate OF 4, 500
an hour. But when they are all cut out
they are worth 500. 40 to the maker. He
VIII work ten hours day If he IS smart,
and will get away with four Of these logs.
It's easy figuring to find out that he VIII
then have on hand A. 600 clOtheSp1nS,
worth $3S5.6O, if they re worth a. cent,
''rhe lumber for those pins has cost
only IS, providing the man wasn't stuck
in buying 1t. Now, If that was all the
expense, a man with a clOthespin factory
would be a blamed sight better oil than
ii he owned a coal mine. But those logs
have to run the gauntlet of good deal
of machinery before they are full tledged
clOtheSp1nS. A saw separates the log
into lengths OF sixteen inches another
one saws these blocks into boards three
quarters of an inch thick, a third saw
reduces the boards to strips three-quar
OcIS VI al 1uCu 81 udI0s
These little strips are pushed to big
wheel, which huUries them to a gang of
other saws where they are chopped into
clOthespin lengths quicker than sausage
machine can chop up pound OF meat.
These lengths are carried by a sWift-mOv-
! ing-beIt to a machine that grabs them
and sets them in a lathe. The lathe gives
them their shape in the tWinkl1ng of an
eye and throws them to the man who
feeds them to still another saw, which
moves backward and forward as if it
were madden than a snake. This saw
cheWs out the slot that the washer
woman is to shove down over the clothes
on the line one of these days, and the
clothespin is ready, all except kiln dry
| ing and polishing. Kiln drying knicks
the sap out of the wood and the polish
| ing is done by letting the clOthespins
rub against themselves IN a revolving
iron cylinder.
''All these processes cost money and
when the manufacturer comes to put up
his goods for sale he finds that his profit
on the, SOOO pins, or a days hard work,
| is only about SOB. I pay the manufac-
turer one cent a dozen or about 81 cents
a thousand, and really, / am compelled
in these tight times to sell them for four
cents a dozen, or 50 SO a thousand,
which wouldn't be so bad If / sold a
thousand every hour or so. But with
care, thousand clOthespins Will stay
| by me for a month or two, and 1 even
have had them with me a whole year.
| Chinese cheap labor is peIting the life
out of the clothespin trade. for Ling Sing
and Wun Lung don't use clothespins IN
their laundIies, and they re washing
about all the clothes that are washed, 1T
| seems to me. NOWADAYS