Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-07-20
Mahogany Worth Fortune
Used Here for Furniture
Colonial Pieces Reproduced and New England
Is Secured for Good Models.

When you think of furniture you
think of Grand Rapids. Mich, don't
you?
OF course you do. just as when you
think of cotton goods, you think Of
Fall River. Mass
But isn't there a chanCe-just
bare chance-that you are being
fooled? That massive, highly polished,
solid mahogany sideboard-can you
find the makers name anywhere OF
it? Probably you can not, and if not,
how do you know ii came from the
Michigan city? Just a 5 likely as not
the piece was built right here in At
lanta.
Atlanta has several really large fur
niture concerns one of them, the
Southern Furniture Company. out
Marietta street devotes its efforts al
most exclusively to high grade dining
room and bedroom sets About $50
men are employed the year around,
turning out dining room tables, writ
ing desks, china closets, sideboards
beds, dressers, chiffoniers, dressers
and washstands.
Follow Colonial Models.
For the most part these are faithful
copies of old colonial pieces, and solid
mahogany and solid oak are the
The day of veneers and of fancy
carvings is gone, il seems Dignity of
line, sober finish, with the richness all
in the material-this IL the policy to-
day.
Stacked in the factory yards are
mahogany and oak in the rough,
worth, in the aggregate. several hun
bred thousand dollars Otto Schwab,
the vice president, points out a very
ordinary looking stack, about the col
or OF a cigar box. There's 5000
worth OF Mexican mahogany" he re-
marks "'It is worth from $3.50 to $500
per 1000 feet. Roughly, l should say
that mahogany is worth three times
as much as oak"
When the lumber arrives in At
lanta ii must remain in the stacks a
year, to insure perfect seasoning.
Even after that. it goes to the dry
kilns
From the dry kilns it goes to a man
who saws it into proper lengths.
Waste Manufacturers Bane.
Here is the man who can break
any furniture factory" said Mr..
Schwab. HE has in his mind all the
different lengths useful in the plant.
and II is his business to cut every
plank to the best advantage. If he
does not, there is terrible waste. and
waste IS the bane of every manufac-
turer's existence"
Sized and sorted as It comes from
the kiln. the lumber is ripped" into
proper widths. Then it is loaded on
trucks and starts its path through the
wood working machines. Everything
is in order. The sawdust and shaw
ings are sucked up by great fans and
carried straight back to the furnace
mess up the floors The lumber moves
from machine to machine on trucks.
1t never has to be rehandleG. Pieces
are stacked in com partments as care
fully as good business house files It's
letters, so that a workman need not
waste time in searching for any par
ticular thing he wants.
Sandpaper on Belts.
Every appliance is up to the minute,
There are, for instance, sanding ma
Chimes" where sandpaper betting
whizzes necessarily. In one machine.
this sandpaper belt is so arranged as
to Ssandpaper the entire top of a
dresser or sideboard or table at one
operation. a skillful workman in
Creasing or decreasing the pressure at
the exact points desired.
Another sandpaper belt Kisses over
a flexible pillow and by resting odd
shaped bits on this pillow, curved ia
BILE legs and the like are made smooth
and ready for the vanishing proc
esses.
Four and five coats of varnish are
necessary before the final coat is
applied. Each coat must be allowed
to dry, then be sandpapered before
the next is applied. This takes sew
eral weeks. When all this is done
each piece stands from three to four
weeks for the varnish to take on the
rock-like consistency necessary be
fore it can be pumiced, and given its
final polish.
Formerly all rubbing with pumice
and water was done by hand. Late
ly a machine was invented which
initiates closely the motion of the
human workman, and this, to some
extent, has supplanted hand rubbing,
but 1t never will do so entirely.
Red Gum Furniture.
AS often is the case the South is
producing something which can not
be duplicated elsewhere, a product