The suburban citizen., 1902-07-26
MAKING THE BASEBALLS
AoRsEHlDE, ALUM TANNED AND
WHITE AND SOFT. THE COVERING.

! DaSeOallS are made IN FRANKFORT, in q
factory as clean as a pink shell. Here
400 young men, young women and lit
tie boys produce 10000 balls daily aud
100000 annually, for winter and sum.
mer. in season and out of season, the
factory is in operation.
1t Is a big building OF red brick, at
the corner of Tulip and Palmer streets,
and it belongs to the firm that makes
the balls used by the National League,
the American League and the Amer.
lean Association. These professional
people in every game put in play from
four to six new balls, which they never
use again except for practice. Anna.
teurs put in play two, three or four
balls, according to their wealth, and
thus the consumption continues on
down tile line to the teams that put in
play only one ball and stop the game
IL that gets lost. Three and a 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 enc no balls are left.
| What ultimately 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.
The baseball of the best grade-the
| $3.50 sort that the professionals USE
is nine inches in circumference. three
inches in diameter and five ounces in
weight, 1t is composed Of a rubber
centre, a round piece of Para rubber
one inch in diameter; layer one inch
thick Of wound woolen yarn, a thin
coating of a plastic composition or ce-
ment, two more layers one inch thick
OF woolen yarn. another coating Of
cement and cover of alum-tanned
horse hide. stitched with cotton.
The winding room of the factory Is
on the first fioor-a huge place where
some fifty boys tend machines thas
wind a strong. pure yarn into balls
much more evenly than the human
hand could do. Each boy has a box
beside him filed with the slate-colored
centres of Para rubber. He places one
OF these centres within the ingenious
, machine that stands at the height of
his breast before him, and the machine
winds about the rubber a four-ply,
bluemixed yarn-a woolen yarn-that
is to say. of the thickness Of a straw,
and very strong and durable.
When enough of the yarn has been
applied the machine stops of itself, for
it works automatically, and the boy
then removes the tall, which is now
two inches in diameter, throws 1t into
box, sets another rubber centre in its
! place and starts the machine awinding
again.
Some little boys, meanwhile, go from
this machine to that gathering up the
partly finished balls and earring them
to the dipper-a young man who dips
them in a transparent fluid that is
called plastic composition" or cement
This fluid is exceedingly adhesive; its
application causes the balls to retain
| permanently their shape; the guar
antee accompanying them, indeed, is
that if they are ever batted out of
shape new balls will be given in ex.
change for them.
| In another machine similar to the
first one each ball Is now wound first
with three-ply warn of blue, until 1t
has reached the requisite size of nine
inches in circumference and three in
| al
ward in the cement again and now it
is ready to be covered.
Automatically through these various
stages the machines nave wound it,
J and. so FAR as the eye can tell, they
nave brought 1t 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 tue various layers
of blue and white and four-ply yarn
are regulated to a nicely.
Horsehide. alum-tanned. and as white
and soft as the gloves that are worn
in the evening, IS the balls covering.
One hide makes only eighteen covers,
for only the strongest and finest part
of it can be used. First it is knee.
staked. A muscular youth pulls 1t
back and torth over knee-hlgh stake
with all the strength OF his back and
shoulder muscles. and this takes the
stretch out Of it, brings it to its III.
Innate size. Then it is passed on to
young man who sits in row Of fellow
workers before a machine that with
one stroke cuts out and perforates for
sewing half cover. The cover is two
pieces, each shaped like an 8, and
these S-shaped sections, pierced along
their edges for the needles passage,
the cutting machines punch with great
accuracy and speed out Of the hides.
Only men-fer the work requires
muscle-sew the $3.50 balls. They sit
on saddles asuide. and clampers of
wood rise before them, in which the
balls are placed. The covers are first
fastened Oh with brass staples. and
then, with an awl in ore hand and a
needle in the other, the sewer begins
| his work II tolyac him ot, N ., o,,ouo ,,,