The Minneapolis journal., 1903-04-11
MAKING BASEBALLs
One Plant Employs Twelve Hundred
=
and Fifty People in Their
Manufacture.
An Annual Output Of About 5000,
600 The Materials and Mode
Of Construction.
Detroit Free Press.

2 Detroit Free Press. s
Baseballs are often used during the
spring and summer, but all thro the year
they are made. One plant has monopoly
III the manufacture of the best balls
the $3.50 official sort-and this plant em-
ploys, year in and year out, 1880 hands,
and it makes, year in and year out, ! 200
dozen balls a day. Thus its annual OUT
put is close upon 100000 baseballs a
year. Us
The spring is here. The players Of the
national game are limbering up. The mil
lions of new baseballs that have been
accumulating since last fall are begin,
ming to be sold.s- Here is description Of
the making of all those balls-a glimpse
at the inside of the big, fve-story, red
brick baseball factory, with its 1880 young
men, young girls nd$boys at work.
This first room in sthe factory is the
winding room. This room is as big as
concert hall, and running up and down 1t
In straight lines are machines, each about
the size of a child, Before each machine
a boy sits. He has on his right and on his
left wooden shelf. Upon the right hand
shelf are balls of the purest, Para rubber,
one inch in diameter, and he takes up
these balls, one at a time, and puts them
into the machine. *. %sas s.s. 81. 81. u.
y-....-W Winding the Ball. = H.
The machine winds about them, more
regularly thanr hands could do, very
strong and pure quality of woolen yarn
OF. a blush hue The.yarn is Of the thick
mess that is called four ply; it is about
as thick, that is, as straw. After enough
of 1t has been Woundtabout the Para rub
Perg center to make a ball two inches in
diameter, the machine stops Of its own ac-
cord, and the boy removes the little ball
and places it on the shelf at his left. Then
he puts into the machine another Para
rubber centerpiece, and the instrument be-
gins again to wind it's woolen yarn about
the rubber. This boy and this machine
make, between them, little balls, half rub
ber and half yarn, two inches in diameter.
| That is their whole duty Fifty boys and
| fifty machines do this work with a clock
| like regularity in the big room. -... -. /
| There are half dozen smaller boys
who go to and fro with baskets, gath
ering up the two-inch balls as they are
finished. These boys take them to a
young man over in one corner, a young
man; called a "dipper.''3 s. Ees.e
The dipper stands beside a vat, the
size Of a bathtub, filed with fluid as
thin and ,colorless as water. In this vat
| he dips the balls and then stands them
aside for arlittle while to dry. The weak
looking fluid is in reality a very powerful
4 plastic composition, or liquid cement, and
it is this composition which insures the
i l
4 vents them from ever being Gas the phrase
1 is)a battered out Of shape ~. - - -.
4 The balls now go to fifty other boys at
! fifty other machines! These machines
are like the first ones, only they are diff
ferently regulated They wind upon the
balls a second inch Of a finer WOODEN yarn
;I-frst three-ply blue and then a three
.Eply white yarn-and the balls are dipped
Eagain in the strong e cement, 81 ard after g
Second dryfkg thy arg asrsadg foape COW
II ;lered. p..t,,a 6 ! 1, GO. s [
| Their covers are made Of an alum
tanned horsehide that is as soft and
white as the gloves men wear at night
with their evening clothes: One horse
! supplies only eighteen bali covers;s for
only the strongest and best portions Of
a each hide are used. Il. 4
= The Gmachines that cut out the covers
are ten feet in height, and the massive
i looking iron work in them weighs many
tons. Each machine has a man seated
fbefore it, and each' with two strokes
cuts out the two covers of ball and al
the same time perforates the covers
I edges. s....|, S r. ~
Each cover is in the shape of figure
8. *, The machines cut these figures as q
woman with a. turnbler or with any sharp
edged circular instrument, cuts cookies
s out Of sheets of dough. A sharp, g.
shaped iron punch descends upon the
I white horsehide, and bites out of it the
half covers. The edges Of the punch have
little needles set close together in them
It is these needles, piercing the cover
that make the perforations for the
stitches. v."- -.@.'-.. q.
%.' 1t Is Mans Work. ->...s -
4 The balls are stitched by men, TO,
women are not strong enough for thi:
work. The thread used is cotton, fol
neither silk nor linen thread will serve
for baseball sewing. This is because the
alum used in the tanning Of the covers
would rot the silk, and because battling
| would break the fbers of linen. Thus
balls sewed with silk or linen would be
| ripped apart before three or four innings
were played. .--H.s ~ ~ ::
The men sit on saddles, astride, and two
wooden arms hold the balls firm before
them: They fit on a pair of covers, pull
4 them taut with tweezers, clamp them to.
, gether with staples, and then sew them
with very strong thread Of red or blue
} thru the performations made in thei
edges by the machines =: = 81 =.
After the sewing balls seams are
rough. Therefore it is rolled first by hanc
and afterwards by machinery. The, hane
rolling lasts an hour. Then into a ma.
chine goes the ball, and round and round
it rolls, in 9 circle five feet in diam eter, til
it has travelled six or seven miles. 4
! emerges thence quite smooth-a perfec
), ball now, ready to be stamped, packed ant
; put upon the market :e@s
& Each ball is 5 ounces in weight, 9 inche!
! in circumference and three inches in di
/; ameter. The various machines keep thes.
- dimensions regular, and an additional pre-
:: caution towards regularity lies in th
). many sets Of scales that stand in ever,
4 room Of the big factory. Each ball, il
. each stage Of its making, is weighed
!. Each ball goes through no less than f1v
i wefghings before 1t is done. Il
: The average professional team put
!: from four to six new baseballs in play II
!. the course of game. The average anna
!, teur team puts in play two or three balls
I, The average boys team put In play on
Z ball, and stops the game if that gets lost
Ii ----- - -
e A Guaranteed Cure for Plies.