The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-06-07
MAKING BAsEBALLs
One Factory Turns Out Nearly Four
Millions Annually.
PROCESS is QUITE COMPLICATED
How the Great National Game of
America Steadily Follows
the Flag.

..'.- -.
Three million six hundred thousand
baseballs are turned out annually in Q
factory in Pennsylvania. Winter and
summer the factory is in operation and
every day $4,000 of the spheres are manu-
featured for the use OF the hundreds Of
thousands of men and boys who engage
in the great national game. The process
of manufacture is thus described by the
Philadelphia Record:
The National League, the American
League and the American Association in
every game put in play from four to six
new balls, which they never use again ex-
cept for practice. Amateurs put in play
two, three or four balls, according to
their wealth, and thus the consumption
continues on down the line to the teams
that put in play only one ball and stop
the game If that gets lost. Three and
half million is a great number of balls to
make in a year, but that is the output.
and the consumption equals it, for at the
seasons end no balls are left. What ulti-
mately becomes of them-whether they
are sold for waste yarn or whether they
are simply thrown away-is an interesting
question, but one that no one seems to be
qualified to answer. i-
What a Good Ball Contains.
The baseball of the best grade-the $50
sort that the professionals use-ls nine
inches in circumference, three inches in
diameter and FIVE ounces in weight. 1t 10
composed of a rubber center, round
piece of Para rubber one inch in diameter;
layer, one inch thick of wound wooden
yarn; thin coating of a plastic compost
tion or cement; two more layers, one inch
thick of wooden yarn; another coating OF
cement and a cover of alum-tanned horse
hide, stitched with cotton.
The winding room of the factory is on
the first floor-a huge place where some
fifty boys tend machines that wind
| strong, pure yarn into balls much more
evenly than the human hand could do
Each boy has box beside him filled with
the slate colored centers of Para rubber.
He places one of these centers within
the ingenious machine that stands at the
| height of. his breast before him. and the
machine winds about the rubber a four
ply, blue-rni yarn-a wooden yarn, that
is to say, of the thickness of straw, and
very strong and durable. ~
When enough Of the yarn hasSbeen ap-
piled the machine stops Of itself, for 1t
works automatically, and the boy then
removes the ball, which is now two inches
| in diameter, throws it into a box, sets
| another rubber center in its place ana
starts the machine awinding again.
| Some little boys meanwhile. go from
this machine to that, gathering UP the
partly finished balls and carrying them to
/ the dipper-a young man who dips them
! in a transparent fluid that is called "plas-
tic composition" or cement. This fluid
is exceedingly adhesive; its application
causes the balls to retain permanently
their shape; the guarantee accompany
them. indeed. is that if they are ever
batted out of shape new balls will be
given in exchange for them.
From One Machine to Another.
In another machine similar to the first
one each ball is now wound, first with
three-ply white yarn and then with
three-ply yarn of blue, until it has
reached the requisite size of nine inches
in circumference and three inches IN dla-
meter 1t is dipped afterwards in the
cement again, and now is ready to be
covered.
- Automa tically through these various
stages the machines have wound 1t, and,
so far as the eye can tell, they have
brought it precisely to the right size. But
weigh scales. tended by boys, are here and
there, and upon these the balls are thrown
from time to time, and thus the various
layers of blue and white and four-ply and
three-ply yarn are regulated to nicely.
Horsehide, alum tanned, and as white
and soft as the gloves that are worn in
the evening, is the balls covering. Ono
hide makes only eighteen covers, for only
the strongest and finest part OF 1t can
be used. First it Is knee staked. mus
cular youth pulls it back and forth over
a knee high stake with all the strength
of his back and shoulder muscles, and
This takes the "stretch'' out of it, brings
it to its ultimate size. Then it is passed
on TO a. young man who sits in row or
fellow workers before machine that with
one stroke cuts out and perforates TOT
sewing half cover. The cover is in two
pieces. each shaped like an 8. and these
S-shaped sections, pierced along their
edges for the needles passage, the cut
ting machines punch with great speed ana
accuracy out of the hides.
Only mentor the work requires muscle
sew the $3.50 balls. They sit on sad
dies astride, and clampers of wood rise
before them. in which the balls are
placed. The covers are first fastened on
with brass staples, and then. with an awl
| in one hand and needle in the other,
the sewer begins his work. 1t takes him,
| on an average, fifteen minutes to COM
plete ball.
In the sewing the thread used Is
very excellent grade Of cotton, colored RED
| and blue. At one time silk was used,
hut the alum in the horsehide rotted it,
and then linen was tried, but batting
| broke the ibres of the linen thread. Cot
ton, it was found, made the most durable
| stitching that could be devised
The sewing leaves a ball rough on the
seams. 1t is, therefore, rolled after sew
ing, first by hand, and then, the next
morning. by machinery, and this process
smoothes it perfectly. The stamping, the
wrapping in tissue and in silver paper
and the packing In separate boxes COM
plete the manufacture of the ball. II is
ready now to go out into the world and
to begin its brief life on the diamond. The
whole process of its making takes just
| thirty minutes
Only American play baseball. and the
American factories did no exporting until
Uncle Sam began his career Of conquest.
They export balls now to Cuba and to
| the Philippines, and during the boaer
uprising they exported quite number to
| China. For wherever the American sol-
/ diers and sailors are they must have base
halls to play with in fine weather.
see Chicago to Boston and Return