Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1903-06-09
ouTPuT oF TooTHPIcks.
Millions Manufactured in Auericu
and More I'm ported.


Millions Manufactured in America
and More Imported.
There is one article of manufacture
that is used so extensively in the Uni
ted States that no one has an idea Of
the annual quantity consumed, namely,
wooden toothpicks. According to an
expert, the number is simply incalcul-
able Millions upon millions of the tiny
wooden sliYers are turned out every
year from American factories alone,
and on top of this tremendous output
come importations from Portugal and
Japan and other countries nearly as
large as the domestic product.
Most of the American toothpicks, ac-
cording to the New York Times. come
from Franklin County, in Maine, near
the forest home of the white birch, out
of which SO per cent of the domestic
toothpicks are made. This wood is soft
and pliable ard of admirable resistance
for the purp2se for which 1t is used.
Whole mills in Maine are devoted TO
supplying the country with toothpicks,
and in the industry is to be found some
of the finest and most intricate of ma
chinery. So tremendous is the output
of these machines that in a brief sea-
son, during the spring, enough tooth
picks can be made to supply the mar
kets of the entire country for the year
to come
A further idea of the capacity of the
machines may be had from the fact that
only 100 men are necessary to operate
and run all the mills in Franklin Coun-
~. Other mills of this kind are scat
tered throughout Pennsylvania and
Massachusetts, and western New York,
but the real home of the toothpick is
Maine
White birch is not the only wood used
for the domestic toothpick; maple and
poplar are employed as well, but birch
has the property of retaining its forest
oder and sweetness.
The telling of toothpick trees is only
incidental to the regular lumber work
of the Maine foresters. No especial
men are sent out to hunt up suitable
trees. But whenever the foreman of a
gang Of woodsmen comes across a tree
especially adapted to toothpicks he OF
ders 1t felled and laid aside. The
branches of the tree are then trimmed
and only the trunk itself is transported
to the mills. There the bark is skinned
and the naked trunk is run through a
machine which sewers it into veneers.
ssN nn0rS'f ic n foa1aViaal oVnrnccfnf0
for thin strips of wood no thicker than
a piece of blotting paper and no wider
than the length of a toothpick. Once
the trunk has been cut into these sheets
of wood only one process remains to
turn out the toothpicks fit for packing
and shipping to market The veneers
are fed into a second machine supplied
with sharp, rotary knives that whirl at
tremendous high speed, shipping the
veneers into toothpicks at the rate of
hundreds of thousands an hour.
1t is only the so-called fancy" tooth
pick that is not made in this country.
In Portugal, from where most of the
orangewood picks ere imported, the
sticks are sharpened by young girls
who, in return for turning out picks"
sharp as needles and smooth as ivory,
are paid cents a day.
The japanese toothpicks are made of
fine reeds, and are distinct from those
sent to this country by the Portuguese
manufacturers. A japanese toothpick
is delicate and thin as tissue paper, and
nevertheless strong and pliable. The
Japanese toothpick-maker earns even
less than his Portuguese fellow crafts
man, his remuneration being fraction
more than cents a day. In short, a
thousand toothpicks may be bought in
Japan for as much as it costs to pack
and box 5000 of American make.