The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-11-05

 wheels were of the finest possible ern- cry, and automatically ground the blade after every cork in turn. No oil was used at all, so he explained, ana he then proceeded to demonstrate the working of the machine. Pushing a wide basket close to the other sise or the machine, he took up his position on the left hand side, drew tray or pieces of cork to him, and, selecting a short length, set it against a small wheel which was placed almost against the blade and at. right angles to 1t. Then he pressed with his foot upon 9 treadle and instantly short point moved forward, pressing on to the oth- CT end of the piece of cork and thus holding 1t against the wheel.
 When secured between these two, he removed his fingers, grasped the up right handle of the long blade and pushed 1t. steadily forward; and in the rwinkling of an eye the pice of rough cork had assumed . familiar aspect. The pressure of the blade against the cork caused the little wheel (and with 1t, of course, the corlI) to revolye, and in It's turn this same spinning allowed the knife to cut evenly all the way round the cork. By the time the blade had been pushed to the furthest ex- termity of the machine the cork had been neatly pared all around; then the treadle was released and the cork roll ed away with final spin into the bas- lket awaiting it on the other side. It was also shown that the machine can be set to produce any taper desired.
 But the most curious part of the trade was explained when one of the audience. catching sign of basketful of old corks, demanded the reason of their presence. From the cork mer- chants account it appeared that a large trade is done in remodelling old corks; that is to say, those used for { wine bottles are bought in immense quantities, cut down by the machine Into smaller size and sold to the pulp licans for stopping pint bottles. Hay- 1 ing once had the corkscreW through them they are useless for anything else, and, indeed there would be a 1 heavy fine for selling them to chemists with whom d large proportion of the cork trade is carried on-but they are used for temporarily stopping the pint bottles taken out of the public houses < by children under fourteen years of age.
 The act requires these bottles to be securely fastened down, and so sealed the old corks are afforded a new lease of life. For this purpose not only is the old cork put on the machine and reduced all the way round, but a thin slice is taken off the top and bottom las we'll The remodelllng of second. hand corks is piecework and paid fol as follows: Id. per gross for each oi the two cuts and 11kd. per gross for tn, machine work. Thus, explained tht merchant he. had to pay sgd. per gross in wages, and the corks are sold at tn, rate of Sd. a gross to the publicans Out of the remaining 1-Sd. he must noi only purchase the old corks, but alst work up an enormous number of cork in an hour, for the work IS neyel checked. Backward and forward runs the huge blade, the forward movemen cutting the cork, the reverse ont grinding it in preparation for the nex stroke; and the cutter feeds tn
 machine with the left hand whil never releasing his hold on the hand with the right.
 Some one suggested the possibility O increasing the speed by machinery, bu
 at that the cutter shook his head Considering the extraordinary sharp ness of the blade and it's dangerou
 proximity to the fingers when the corl
 was put into position, he himself woul
 take no risks of that nature, so h
 averred.
 As it was, his instinct told him whe. anything was amiss and without stop
 ping to think or reason over the mat ter, he could check the blade at once
 but to have twenty-six inch blad
 of steel moving by machinery h
 would rather be excused. It was heav
 work, certainly, alternately pushing
 and pulling that blade for hours a
 a stretch, but unless an automati feed could be arranged to the machin
 it would turn the cork cutting bushes
 into a fearfully dangerous employ
 rncnt.
 The best price corks are the tiny one
 sold to chemists for the ends of hypo dermic tubes; minute little atoms tha ! can be cut out of almost any scrap 6 cork, always provided 1t is of the bes lquality. There are not many cutter who can do such fine work, and tn trade is now in the hands of two 0 three men only, and the cutter too
 special pains to impress upon his GUS toners that he himself was one of tn privileged number. Like all othe trades, that of the cork cutter is begin
 ing to feel the i'll effects of foreig, competition; the finished article nowadays imported in large quantitie
 instead of coming over in the raw, an
 once prosperous business is gradu ally dying out.
 BOWEN N-ARlMISTEAD Il Baltimore Nov 2-A veddfno of e5