The morning journal-courier., 1908-01-18

good crop of bone marks bright spot In the adventurous, hard working life of the New Bedford whaler.
 Last year 96,600 pounds of whale bone were taken by American sailors. If, as is the case, the average man does not see a 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 re- quirements of a stay as this stuff from the mouth of the whale. It com pines lisntness, elasticity and fiexibili- ty, even when split into very thin strips It has also the property of re- taining any shape that may be given to it when it is heated and then cool ed under compression,
 The best quality of bone when ready for market sells at S10 a pound. The work of preparation is carried on principally in New To k and Bos- ton, the former city possessing four factories where whalebone is cut and the latter one. Cheaper portions of the bone sell at from S5 to $6 pound.
 Whalebone whips are still made, and the farmer who possesses one is the envy of his township. These are 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 wha- ebne horsewhip costs from $l5 to SIS to- day and will outlast dozen whips of any other material
 Whalebone was the original material from which umbrella ribs were made. Its durability was the one good fea- ture. The umbrella which boasted of whalebone ribs could never be shu. up tight because of the size of the ribs.
 There is still some bone employed | in artists sketching umbrellas and carriage shades, but it is pretty ex- pensive for these purposes. Some whalebone is used in thin strips in mems felt hats to impart stiffness | to the brim
 Slender strips are used by silk spin ners as turning sticks. On an orna- mental sword hilt you will sometimes | find a winding of whalebone strips A few canes arc made of whalebont heated and twisted.
 In these and few other ways tho country's production of from 75,00( to 100000 pounds year is utilized
 The best whalebone and the bulk O it comes from the bowhead whale O the Arctic seas. Baleen it is called il its natural state. Like an enormous
 strainer there depends from grea slabs which form the roof of the bow
 heads mouth hair like that of {;
 horses mane but much coarser Tn
 economic value of this arrangemen
 so far as the whale personally 1
 concerned lies in the fact that whel
 he opens. his mouth the water rushe in and out again. while all the fish If
 it contains becomes entangled in tn
 fringe of the balcen and is transferre
 to the whale stomach in leisurel and comfortable manner.
 There are from 2e0 to s6o of thes
 great elastic slabs on each side of tn
 whales mouth When the mouth
 closed the baleen fits into grooves ir geniously and conveniently placed When it is opened the baleen spring forward so as to fill completely th space between the jaws.
 : Some of the slabs of baleen in tn
 mouth of the bowhead are ten or , or twelve feet long. with width ( } ten inches at the base The Pacif ? right whale yields baleen nearly { | large as that of the bowhead but { . coarser texture; the finback wha
 produces short baleen and the Sout T Sea whalebone is short and coars : The baleen of the humpbaek whale
 so poor as hardly to be worth takin When kill has been made the fishe 6 men hoist the upper jaw on the deo l of their vessel with the layer of bor
 attached. Cutting spades are pusht h along the groove between the gu it and the iawbo ne, and the entire hef n being suspended from tackle. Il
 weight of the bone itself aids in q e taching it from the jaws
 ;t Then with spades and axes the ifs Y ermen separate the mass of bone in Y pieces of from three to six slabs eac q when it is stored in the hold un leisure comes for cleaning it Then t n slabs are carefully separated from O :. another by cutting through the gu h with an axe, the particles of gum al
 flesh are removed with scrapers al Ii after being washed the bone is tho
 oughly dried.
 Much of the whalebone taken
 day is landed at San Francisco, whe 'i the bone is punched in bundles v twenty-two slabs each, weighing abe II eighty pounds The bone less than : Y feet long is considered undersized a
 is sold at lower price.
 'i The biggest yield of bone by o T. bowhead whale was that taken by | Il Mary and Helen in 1883. when [ n cleanup yielded 3.1o0 pounds, wol k in the neighborhood of s15,0O0 at pl Id vailing prices
 l. From the San Francisco stol l; houses the bone is sent to New Yo K and Boston factories to be cut le these factories are small. employing g. the outside forty workmen.
 in Here the various processes of tral 1y forming the rough into the finish
 product are performed with a vari' ly of S iears and cutting knives WI or the gorkmen are through with it u Tt hay dress bone which sells for
 a ,und, whip bone at s6 or s7