The Greeley tribune., 1904-03-31

making one piece OF furniture IN the
manual training school during
season. Nearly everybody has seen
the supposedly funny cartoon OF a
man stulling live dogs into one end
of machine and seeing them coming
out at the other end in the form Of
linked sausages. Furniture making
in any of the large eastern factories
looks much the same way, the rough
lumber going in at one end of the
building and coming out at the other
as beautifully constructed and highly
polished furniture ready to beau6ify
the homes OF the country. A minute
description OF the process of trans
formation is out Of the question here
for want of space, hut in brief form
it is this:
The rough lumber being run into
the factory on trucks is quickly cut
into small pieces with rip or cross-cut
saws, numbered and sent to the plan
ers, smoothed and numbered again.
From here the pieces move from one
machine to another, having a groove
cut here, an edge beveled there,
a mortice made or hole bored, the
dimension Of each piece taken from
chart In the possession of the fore
man OF each department. I he chart
is the work Of the designer, the
architect of furniture. Finally from
the machine room all the pieces of
the same number reach the cabinet
maker, VINO assemblies that which
has previously been cut to 6t in the
machine room. This mans trade is
practically gone in the age Of machin-
cry, for where before he made the
finished article right from the rough
lumber, as the different pieces are
now ready for him before he sees
them, he can hardly make an error
in their assembling Being thor
oughly glued, pegged, and in some
instances nailed together, and sand
papered until it fairly shines, the
complete piece is ready for flushing.
The tirst step here is likely to be .
coating of "fller," that soaks into
the grains of the wood and makes it
perfectly solid. One coat after an
other Of varnish or shellac is then
applied and again rubbed of with
fine sandpaper to make a perfectly
smooth surface on the wood to receive
the final finish. Even after the final
coat Of varnish has been applied this
is rubbed down to glass like surface
with powdered pumicestone and va
ter and then polished with other
solutions for this purpose. After q
certain amount of drying the fin
ished article is ready for market.
In its course through the factory,
one single piece of wood may have
been handled by fifty different men,
each one of whom adds one little
change in its appearance and brings
1T that much nearer to completion.
1T requires a skilled mathema atican
to figure just what fraction of cent
it costs each time certain piece is
handled a thing that is absolutely
necessary in order to determine the
actual cost of manufacturing a COM
plete piece of furniture of a certain
pattern. An error in calculation
here may mean a big loss on every
piece manufactured.
The difference between the modern
method and that or the old cabinet
maker, who was an artist as we'll, is
apparent The old artisan knew
when he had worked so many days to
complete piece of ware and had
paid so much for material he must
sell the piece for so much to make
his small wage. The modern cabinet
manufacturer sits In his Office with
long columns Of figures sent in from
each department, and figures the cost
as represented by hundreds OF men,
each handling a piece OF furniture
for few minutes, one minute or
few seconds. The old workman saw
work of art forming under his
touch; the modern workman in a
factory is valuable adjunct to an
expensive machine, both working
toward a commercial end but the
latter method brought beautiful fur
niture within the reach of everyone,
which the old method could not, not
even within reach of the maker of
the goods. All his energies and skill
were needed to make for him living.
Iearninp the PODeS