Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1914-01-22
FOOTBALL MAKING
Work That Requires Powerful
Hands and Arms.
THE PIGSKlN IDEA is WRONG,
That Brand of Hide Is Never Used, the
Finest Balls Taking Calf or Cow Skin
and the Cheaper Grades Sheepskin.
The Bladders Are Made of Rubber.

n the Cheaper Grades Sheepskin.
The Bladders Are Made of Rubber.
That phrase so much used in the foot
ball season, Chasing the pigskin," in
wolves a popular error. The football
is not made Of pigskin. but of the hide
OF the calf or COW and for the cheaper
variety the skin of the sheep. Foot
balls of the ordinary grade are made
in this country, but some Of the finest.
sold to those who are not particular
about price, are imported from Eng
land, where the industry was an old
one before it was started in America.
The making of a football is almost
entirely a male industry. The only
share that women have in the work is
seen when one first enters a football
factory. At long tables girls sit past
ing Innings OF sections of the footballs
cut in another part Of the factory. 1t
is work that a girl is particularly fitted
for, as the Innings must be carefully
fastened to the rough leather and
smoothed until there is not a sign Of a
bubble or rough place on the surface
Of the lining.
The first step in the making of a
football is to select the leather. Only
the best of picked skins are used. and
each skin is carefully gone over for
defects before being cut into the nee
essary sections. This is done by ma
chinery. and the sections are then sent
to the room in which the girls are at
work for the lining to be pasted on.
Then the lined sections are sent to
the sewing room and the Innings are
stitched together, bringing the outer
covering Of the football into position
for the final stitching. This is done by
a machine that turns the footballs out
stitched in the seams but wrong side
out. They must then be, turned right
side out, a job that is left to men who
do nothing else all day long but re-
verse the leather covers by hand, a
work that requires great strength and
endurance and gives the workers a pro-
digious amount Of pulling power in the
muscles of the arms and hands.
When the cover is pulled right side
out the outer part Of the football is
finished ready for the imitation. The
bladder is inserted and blown up. and
the ball is then stamped on a hot press
and worked up until the surface is per-
fectly smooth and free from rough
spots. The ball is then Debated and
placed aside for shipment.
Balls intended for the soccer game
or for basket ball are also made in the
way described. A new idea recently
applied to the making of the football
is to provide a ball suited to the rough
treatment inseparable from play on the
stone tagged or asphalted pavement Of
the school playground. 1t was found
that the finely finished football intend
ed for use on a grass covered field
could not stand the hard usage receiv-
ed during practice in the school yard,
and a football was therefore devised
especially for this rough work. with
the seams stitched on the outside in
stead Of the inside. Sewing the seams
from the outside provided a ridge that
protects the ball when kicked and
bounced in a paved court and makes
the cost Of the footballs used in a sea-
son somewhat less than when the fine
ly finished oval of the gridiron grounds
is used.
The origin Of the term kicking the
pigskin" was explained by one of the
authorities in this way: Years ago.
when the game was in its early stages
in England. the imitation was done by
means of a bladder of a pig. In those
old days the skin Of the pig was ac-
tually subjected to the indignity Of be-
ing propelled high in the air by the
toe of a football player, but as the
bladder is no longer used the term has
ceased to apply.
The Dladders are now made of the
best Para rubber. The regulation foot
ball weighs from thirteen and a quar-
ter to fourteen ounces. The soccer
ball weighs from thirteen to fifteen
ounces. One cannot definitely predict
the life of a football. but the makers
say the hardest kicking should fail to
retire the ball in less than two years.
1t may not be generally known that
football has a patron saint. In 1920 a
boy named Hugh had the misfortune
to kick a football through a window in
the house of a neighbor, who became
so incensed at the damage done that
he stabbed the boy to death. The pop
ulace avenged the boys death by kill
ing his slayer and then exalted the
name of the unfortunate boy by calling
him Saint Hugh.'-New York Sun.
Saving Himself.