The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-29
WHALEBONE Is
 GOING HIGH AGAIN Price Nearly In Record Figures
 of 1905 NOTHING IS EQUAL TO IT For corsets and Other Uses-WhaIes Worth More for Bones Than oiIs-only Five Small
 Factories.
NOTHING IS EQUAL TO IT

harpoons bright. Today the spoil is whale bone.
 Whalebone is now at nearly its high est price, and is climbing steadily to the high water mark reached in 1905, when Arctic bone commanded sS.S0 a pound, or say, $11,0O0 a ton. To this mark it rose from the F cents a pound which was the price recorded in 1921, when it gained its earliest recognition as a commod- fly.
 Then it was by-product of the whale. with oil the primary consideration. Now oil is hardly worth carrying home, but the head that yields good crop of bone marks a bright spot in the adventurous, hard working life of the New Bedford whaler.
 Last year 96,60O pounds of whalebone was taken by American sailors. If, as is the case, the average man does not see splinter of it from one years end to the other, where does it all go?
 Prominent among it's uses Is for corset stays Nothing yet discovered adapts itself so perfectly to all the requre- ments of a stay as this stuff from the mouth of the whale. It combines light ness. elasticity and fiexibility, even when split into very thin strips. It has also the property of retaining any shape that may be given to 1t when it is heated and then cooled under compression.
 The Best QauIlty.
 The best quality of bone when ready for market sells at s10 a pound. The work of preparation is carried on prin- cipally in New York and Boston, the oil fan where whalebone Is cut and the latter one. Cheaper portions of the bone sell at from $5 to SC a pound.
 Whalebone whips are still made, and the farmer who possesses one is the envy of his township. These arc made from single pieces of bone six or seven feet long, sometimes wound and sometimes used just as they come from the cutting machine. A whalebone horsewhip costs from $15 to SIS today and will outlast a dozen whips of any other material
 Whalebone was the original material from which umbrella ribs were made. It's durability was one good feature. The umbrella which boasted of whale bone ribs could never be shut up tight because of the size of the ribs.
 There Is still some bone employed fin sketching umbrellas and car riage shades, but 1t Is pretty expensive ioi ihtSO pul pOStSs oOiilt WndlcOOn6 IS used in thin strips In mems felt hats to impart stiffness to the brim.
 For Silk Spinners.
 Slender strips are used by silk spin ners as turning sticks. On an orna- mental sword hilt you will sometimes find winding of whalebone heated and twished. -sf. ltl
 In these and a few other ways the country's production of from 1000 to 100, 900 pounds year is utilized.
 The best wha1ebone and the bulk of it comes from the bowhead whale of the Arctic seas. Baleen 1t is called in its natural state. Like an enormous strainer there depends from great slabs which form the roof of the bowhead's mouth hair like that of horses mane but much coarser. The economic value of this arrangement so far as the whale personally Is concerned lies in the fact that when he opens his mouth the wa ter rushes in and out again, while all the fish life it contains becomes en- tangled in the fringe of the baleen and is transferred to the whales stomach in a leisurely and comfortable man. ner
 There are from 26O to S6O of these great elastic slabs on each side of the whales mouth. When the mouth is closed the baleen fits Into grooves in- geniously and conveniently placed. When it is opened the baleen springs forward so as to fill competely the space between the jaws
 Some of the slabs of baleen in the mouth of the bowhead are ten or twelve feet long, with width of ten inches at the base. The Pacific right whale yields baleen nearly as large as that of the bowhead but of coarser teXture the finback whale produces short ba- leen, and the South Sea whalebone is short and coarse. The baleen of the humpback whale is so poor as hardly to be worth taking.
 The Upper Jaw.
 When a kill has been made the fisher men hoist the upper jaw on the decN of their vessel with the layer of bone at tached Cutting spades are pushed along the groove between the gum and the jaw bone, and the entire head being suspend ed from tackle, the weight of the bone itself aids in detaching 1t from the jaws
 Then with spades and axes the fisher men separate the mass of bone into pieces of from three to six slabs each, when 1t is stored in the hold until leisure comes for cleaning it. Then the slabs are care- fully separated from one another by cut ting through the gum with an axe, the particles of gum and flesh are removed with scrapers and after being washed the bone Is thoroughly dried.
 Much of the whalebone taken today Is landed at San Francisco, where the bone is punched in bundles of 22 slabs each. weighing about 80 pounds. The bone less than six feet long is considered under sized and is sold at lower price.
 The biggest yield of bone by one bow head whale was that taken by the Mary and Helen in 1883, when the clean-up yielded S1O0 pounds, worth in the neigh bodhood of s15,O00 at prevailing prices
 From the San Francisco storehouses the bono is sent to New York and Boston factories to be cut All these factories are small, employing at the outside 40 worxmen.
 Here the various processes of trans forming the rough into the finished prod uct are performed with variety of shears and cutting knives. When the workmen are through with 1t they have dress bone which sells for $10 a pound, whip bone at $6 or $7 a pound, corset bones at $50 a pound and other varieties at different prices. Even the shavings are utilized, going to the upholsterers.
 The cost of whalebone has led to the introduction of many substitutes, such as horn and rattan and thin strips of steel covered with rubber or compost tion, and necessarily these things have supplanted bone in the cheaper grades of corsets. But bone occupies place of It's own for the better trade, and as long as fashion decrees stays, so long probably will the New Bedford sailor take his chances of getting caught in the fee ito the west'ar of Pint Barrow"