The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1900-01-24
How Wooden Plates are Made.

hen yuu t,uy pound Oh bnt;'r,
or some stray. Dcriir-. or other srnali
fruits for dessert. the grocer send,
them home to you each in its neat
wooden plate or basket, with no extra
charge, and with no Injunction upon
| you TO return or even care for the
package The manufacture of these
wooden vessels has become very i'm
portant industry, and it is computed
that between twenty-f and thirty
thousand persons are employed in it.
The foundation Of this modern
package business, so we arc told by
The New York Sun, lies in the invcn-
ion Of inachinc which shavcs logs
Of wood into continuous strips of
vcnccrs, instead Of the old way Of
saving the venccrS out like boards.
| That machine was in:cnted about
twenty years ago, and since then it
lla, turned whole forest into pliablc
strips Of wood Of the thickness Of or
iinary cardboard and as capable of
manipulation, while processing quail
ties which make them available for
purposes for which cardboard would
be utterly useless.
Where poplar, beech. aud birch and
elm and sweet gum grow, there are
made the baskets. The crates in
which berries arc sent to market are
made where white spruce grows.
The process Of manufacture begins
with the barking of logs. They are
then sawed into sections Of about two
and onc-half feet in length aud i'm
mediately plunged into long vat of
boiling water or scaled in tanks where
live steam is fed to them. They are
steamed or boiled for twenty-four
hours. A crane picks them up one
by one and lands them between the
centers of turning lathe, where they
are automatically centered and clip
ped fast. AS they begin to turn
broad, sharp knife as long as the logs
comes up and slices each log spirally
into one immense ribbon of wood. AS
the ribbon glides over the knife rollers
catch it and feed it under fixed
knives which slice it into the right
widths for baskets parts. Other
knives. set so as to cut but part way
through it, make the marks upon
| ,yb;ob tho ,,,rt, ,ro oftory,rJ. f,l,JoI
Now girls take the formed pieces:
Each girl has before her il wooden
form, shaped like the baskets she is
to make and banded with iron where
tacks or staples are to be driven She
dcftly folds Il strip of tough birch or
elm about the form for thc.inncr band
bends over this the pieces which form
the body and over these another band
of tough wood. If she is making
tackled baskets, she already has her
mouth full Of tacks, and she takes
these one by one and drives them
through the veneers, where they
clinch against the iron bands Of the
form. Some girls will make three
thousand .erry baskets in day, and
the average worker can make about
two thousand. They get eighty five
cents thousand for the work.
In other parts of the factory crates
are being sawed out and nailed to-
gether. Each well-made crate will
have sixty or seventy nails in it, be
fitted with hinges, and hasp for the
cover, and yet one Of these with thirty
two quart berry baskets in itsells for
only twenty-six cents. Better crates,
which are meant to be returned to the
farmer, and are provided with metal
corner pieces for strength and are made
Of heavier material, sell for few
cents more. Few Of the baskets are
ever used second time, and it is es-
timated' that two hundred million
berry baskets alone are used in this
country every year.
Of butter dishes. ranging in size
from one pound to those holding five
pounds each, it is estimated thai TWO
hundred millions year are used.
Pie dishes are used, too, By the mil