The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-08-26
FACTS ABOUT CLoTHEsPINs.
A Log Costing 81 VIII Make 500
Worth of the Article.


''The longer you lif." as a philosophic
German once remarked, 1.-The more you
| fndt, by chimineddy, oudt,''
} For instance. there's the common every
| day clothespin, on which no man has ever
| been able to improve. any more than he has
! improved upcs the wheelbarrow or the old
fashioned wooden rolling-pin. Who would
| imagine that taere was anything about the
| clothespin that was worth finding out
The writer was passing little grocery
| where box of clothespins was among the
| things displayed outside.
How much for c!othespins toiay?' he
asked of the grocer
! -Four cents vas the reply
-Four cents apiece"
| apiece, Great hickory, no, Four cents
dozen,"
"Ah-h-h. Are you a good Judge Of
! clothespins ?"
Il should say so, I've made more than
million of emf" replied the storekeeper
I've followed the clothespin, sir, in all
the processes Of its evolution. from the
growing tree to the polishing box. Say!''
exclaimed the dealer, ito look at that pin
you'd scarcely believe that the maunfac-
turer could make and sell twelve of them
for cent, and have a profit of more than
% per cent at that. would you?
But he can do it. He can whittle out
clothespins at the rate of eighty a 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 81 for it, II he pays any more than
that he don't know his business. That log
will white up into l.. 900 clothespins 1t
will take the man two hours and a half
to chew that log up into clothespins which
is at the rate of 1890 an hour BIZ when
they are all cut out they are worth SOC. 10
to the maker. He will 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 will then have on hand
$4,000 clothespins, worth S3S5.60 If they're
worth a cent.
The lumber for those pins has cost only
s., providing the man wasn't stuck in
buying it. Now, If that was all the CX-
pense, a man with a clothespin factory
would be a blamed sight better off than
if he owned a coal mine. But these logs
have to run the gantlet of a good deal of
machinery before they are full-fedged
clothespins. i saw separates the log into
lengths Of sixteen inches, another ore
saws these blocks into boards three-quar-
tiers OF an incE thick, and a third saw re-
duces the boards to strips three-quarters
of an inch square. These little strips are
pushed to big wheel, which hurries them
10 gang or other saws, where they are
chopped into clothespin lengths quicker
thar a sausage machine can chop up a
pound of meat. These lengths are carried
by a swiftmoving belt to machine that
grabs them and sets them in a lathe. The
lathe gives them their shape in the twink
ling OF an eye, and throws them to the nan
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 washerwoman is to shove
down over the clothes on the line one of
these days, and the clothespin is ready. all
except kiln-drying and polishing. Kiln
drying knocks the sap out of the wood.
and the polishing is done by letting the
clothespins rub against themselves in a
revolving iron cylinder.
"All these processes cost money, and
when tine manufacturer comes to put up
his goods for sale he finds that his profit
on the $4,000 rms or days hard work
is only abou $lS3 l pay the manufac-
turer ! cent a dozen. or about 81 cents a
thousand. and really / am compelled in
these tight times. to sell them for cents
a dozen. or $3.50 a thousand. which
wouldn't be so bad il sold thousand
every hour or so. But with care thou
sand clothcspins will stay by me for a
month or two and l even have had them
with me whole year. Chinese cheap
labor is pelting the life out of the clothes
pin trade. for Ling Sing and Wun Lung
don't use clothespins in their laundries,
and they're washing about all the clothes
that are washed. 1t seems to me, nova
days"