Part 47

Fig. 1 shows the shape in which the cedar slats arrive at the factory. These slats after grading are boiled in steam to remove what remaining sap there may be in the wood. The slats are then dried in steam-drying rooms. Then the next step is grooving and gives the results shown by Fig. 2. Now the wood is ready to receive the “leads” (which you will remember are a mixture of graphite and clay), which are placed between two slats sandwich fashion, glued, put in forms that hold them over night under a thousand pounds pressure. Fig. 3 shows the leads laid in one of the grooved slats.]

How Are Lead-pencils Made?

The graphite, as it comes from the mines, is broken into small pieces, the impure particles being separated by hand. It is then finely divided in large pulverizers and placed in tubs of water, so that the lighter particles of graphite float off from the heavier particles of impurities. This separating, in the cheaper grades, is also done by means of centrifugal machines, but the results are not as satisfactory. After separation, the graphite is filtered through filter-presses.

What Makes Some Pencils Hard and Others Soft?

The clay, after having been subjected to a similar process, is placed in mixers with the graphite, in proportions dependent upon the grade of hardness that is desired. A greater proportion of clay produces a greater degree of hardness; a lesser proportion increases the softness.

Furthermore, the requisite degree of hardness is obtained by the subsequent operation, viz., the compressing of the lead and shaping it into form ready to be glued into the wood casings. A highly compressed lead will produce a pencil of greater wearing qualities, an important feature in a high-grade pencil. Hydraulic presses are used for this purpose; and the mixture of clay and graphite, which is still in a plastic condition and has been formed into loaves, is placed into these presses. The presses are provided with a die conforming to the caliber of the lead desired, through which die the material is forced. The die is usually cut from a sapphire or emerald or other very hard mineral substance, so that it will not wear away too quickly from the friction of the lead. The lead leaves the press in one continuous string, which is cut into the lengths required (usually seven inches for the ordinary size of pencil), is placed in crucibles, and fired in muffle furnaces. The lead is now ready for use, and receives only a wooden case to convert it into a pencil.

Where Does the Wooden Part of a Lead-pencil Come from?

The wood used in pencil making must be close and straight grained, soft, so that it can readily be whittled, and capable of taking a good polish. No better wood has been found than the red cedar, a native of the United States, a durable, compact and fragrant wood to-day almost exclusively used by pencil makers the world over. The best quality is obtained from the Southern States, Florida and Alabama in particular.

The wood is cut into slats about 7 inches long, 2¹⁄₂ inches wide, and ¹⁄₄ inch thick. It is then thoroughly dried in kilns to separate the excess of moisture and resin and to prevent subsequent warping. After this the slats are passed through automatic grooving machines, each slat receiving six semi-circular grooves, into which the leads are placed, while a second slab with similar grooves is brushed with glue and covered over the slat containing the leads. This is passed through a molding-machine, which turns out pencils shaped in the form desired, round, hexagon, etc. The pencils are now passed through sanding machines, to provide them with a smooth surface.

How is the Color Put on the Outside of the Pencil?

After sand-papering, which is a necessary preliminary to the coloring process, when fine finishes are desired, the pencils are varnished by one of several methods. That most commonly employed is the mechanical method by which the pencils are fed from hoppers one at a time through small apertures just large enough to admit the pencil. The varnish is applied to the pencil automatically while passing through, and the pencils are then deposited on a long belt or drying pan. They are carried slowly a distance of about twenty feet, the varnish deposited on the pencils meanwhile drying, and are emptied into a receptacle. When sufficient pencils have accumulated, they are taken back to the hopper of the machine and the operation repeated. This is done as often as is necessary to produce the desired finish. The better grades are passed through ten times or more. Another method is that of dipping in pans of varnish, the pencils being suspended by their ends from frames, immersed their entire length and withdrawn very slowly by machine. A smooth enameled effect is the result. The finest grades of pencils are polished by hand. This work requires considerable deftness; months of practice are necessary to develop a skilled workman. After being varnished, the pencils are passed through machines by which the accumulation of varnish is sand-papered from their ends. The ends are then trimmed by very sharp knives to give them a clean, finished appearance.

Stamping is the next operation. The gold or silver leaf is cut into narrow strips and laid on the pencil, whereupon the pencil is placed in a stamping press, and the heated steel die brought in contact with the leaf, causing the latter to adhere to the pencil where the letters of the die touch. The surplus leaf is removed, and, after a final cleaning the pencil is ready to be boxed, unless it is to be further embellished by the addition of a metal tip and rubber, or other attachment.

How is the Eraser Put On a Pencil?

In this country about nine-tenths of the pencils are provided with rubber erasers. These are either glued into the wood with the lead, or the pencils are provided with small metal ferrules threaded on one end, into which the rubber eraser-plugs are inserted. These ferrules are made from sheet brass, which is cupped by means of power presses, drawn through subsequent operations into tubes of four- or five-inch lengths, cut to the required size, threaded and nickel-plated.

The Story in a Bale of Cotton

Where Does Cotton Come From?

We get cotton from a plant which grows best in the warm climate of our Southern States. Cotton has been known to the people of the world for a long time. Before the birth of Christ people knew about cotton. They thought it was wool which grew on a tree instead of a sheep’s back. No other plant is of such value to man as cotton. We should learn something about a plant that is used by man in so many ways as cotton.

The cotton plant of our Southern States is a small shrub-like annual about four feet high. The flowers of the cotton plant are white at first but change to cream color and then are tinged with red. This change takes place over a period of four days when the petals drop off and leave what is called a “boll” in the calyx of the flower. This boll, which is to contain the cotton, is really the seed container of the cotton plant and keeps on growing larger until it is about as big as a hen’s egg. When it is fully grown or ripe the boll cracks and the seeds and fibrous lint burst forth. The bolls are then gathered and taken to a cotton gin, where the seeds are separated from the lint and the lint prepared for weaving.

The boll is divided into from three to five sections. Each section contains a quantity of lint and seeds. When the boll is fully grown the covering of each of the sections cracks and opens up, revealing the contents. It is just like opening the door of each section and having the contents burst out. When these bolls burst open, there is no more beautiful sight in the world than to look out over a cotton field and see the colored people--the “cotton pickers”--busy at their work picking off the bolls.

When the crop is gathered and ginned, the lint is packed into bales and taken to the cotton mill, where it is made into cloth. One of the most interesting industrial processes in the world is to see the bale of cotton go into a cotton mill and come out a piece of cotton goods.

Pictures herewith by courtesy of White Oak Mills.

Who Discovered Cotton?

Just who discovered cotton is not known. The early records are so incomplete that no individual can be credited with the discovery of the value of this wonderful plant. Long before Cæsar’s time, among the Hindoos they had a law that if you stole a piece of cotton you were fined three times its value. Most of the early nations were familiar with cotton--the early Egyptians, Chinese and other ancient people used it and valued it.

What Nation Produces the Most Cotton?

The United States is the leader in the production of cotton, as in many other important world products. We produce more than seventy-five per cent of all the cotton grown in the world. The remainder is practically all grown by East India, Egypt and Brazil.

What is Cotton Used For?

The cotton plant is one of the wonder plants of the world, when you stop to think how well we could get along without wool or silk or other fabrics if we had to.

Little would be lost to the world so far as actual comfort is concerned if all of the other fabric-making materials were lost. We would sleep, as we often do now, in beds the coverings of which were pure cotton, in a room in which the rugs were woven from cotton, the sun kept out of the room by cotton window shades. We could still have plenty of good soap to wash our bodies and clothing, for much of our soap to-day is made from cotton-seed oil; then we could use a cotton towel to dry ourselves; and put on a complete outfit of clothing made entirely of cotton. White cotton table cloths and napkins are not so fine as linen; they are good enough for anyone. Your breakfast rolls will taste quite as well if baked with cottolene instead of lard; the meat for your dinner would be fed and fattened on cotton-seed meal and hulls as they are now; you would have butter made from cotton-seed that compares favorably with the butter you now have on the table; the tobacco in your cigar would continue to be grown under cotton cloth and packed in cotton bags; armies would still sleep under cotton tents and could use gun-cotton to destroy the enemy.

What Are the Principal Cotton Cloths?

There are a great many different names given to cotton cloths, but they may in general be divided into five classes--plain goods, twills, sateen, fancy cloth and jacquard fabrics. The cotton cloth in each of these classes varies and goes by different names. For instance, in Plain Goods, the different kinds are lawn, nainsook, sheeting, mull, print cloth, madras. The difference lies in the number of threads in one inch of width, the fineness and the weave. The Twills have lines running diagonally and are used for linings mostly. The difference is in the weaving. Denim, largely used for overalls, belongs to the class of Twills. Sateen is used for dress linings, dresses and waists. Then there is the class of Fancy Cloths which is another kind of weave used largely in children’s clothes, shirt waists, etc., and under the name Scrim is fine for draperies and towelling. The other class, Jacquard Fabrics, represents the most complicated form of weaving and used largely under special individual names or brands for dress goods, novelties, etc.

How Much Cotton Cloth Will a Pound of Cotton Make?

When the cotton is spun into yarn it is no longer sold by the bale, but by the pound. It is impossible to make an exact statement of the amount of cotton cloth one pound of cotton yarn will make, because of the difference in weaving. It has, however, been figured out that a pound of cotton yarn should make

3¹⁄₂ yards of sheeting, or 3³⁄₄ yards of muslin, or 9¹⁄₂ yards of lawn, or 7¹⁄₂ yards of calico, or 5¹⁄₂ yards of gingham, or 57 spools of thread.

The Story in a Piano

What is Music?

Music is one kind of sound. All sounds, whether musical or not, are the result of sound waves in the air. They travel almost exactly like the waves of the water. They go in circles in all directions at the same speed and will go on forever unless they meet something that has the ability to stop them. If you drop a pebble into the exact center of a basin of water, you will see the ring of waves produced start from the point where the pebble entered the water and travel to the sides of the vessel, which stop them. Also the pebble as it falls into the water will make ring after ring of waves.

When you shout or ring or strike one of the keys of the piano you start a sound wave or a series of them, which you can hear as soon as the sound wave strikes your ear. When the series of waves is regular the sound produced is a musical sound, and when the sound waves are not regular in length we call it some other kind of a sound.

Acting on the knowledge so learned, man has devised numerous instruments with which he can produce musical sounds, such as the piano, phonograph, and many others.

Who Made the First Piano?

The first real piano was made by Bartolomeo Christofori, an Italian. He invented the little hammers by the aid of which the strings are struck, giving a clear tone instead of the scratching sound which all the previous instruments produced. It took two thousand years to discover the value of the little hammers in making clearer notes. His first piano was made in 1709. The word by which we call the instrument pianoforte has, however, been traced back as far as 1598, when it is said to have been originated by an Italian named Paliarino. The first piano made in America was produced by John Behnud, in Philadelphia, in 1775.

How Was the Piano Discovered?

~THE DISCOVERY OF STRINGED MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS~

The piano is a stringed musical instrument. The name pianoforte comes from two Italian words meaning _soft_ and _loud_, and is accurately descriptive of the piano because the notes can at will be made soft or loud. The piano is a development of the simplest form of making regular sound vibrations by snapping or hammering a string of some kind which is stretched tight and fastened at both ends. We must go far back into history to find the earliest traces of stringed instruments, and even then we do not know where and when they originated, for there seem to be no records which help us to trace their origin. We know that the Egyptians as far back as 525 B.C. had stringed instruments, but we only know they had them--not where they got them or who made them. There is a legend that the Roman god Mercury, while walking along the Nile after the river had overflowed its banks and the land had again become dry, stubbed his toe on the shell of a dead tortoise. He picked it up to cast it aside and accidentally touched some strings of sinew with his finger. These strings were only what remained of the once live tortoise. At the same time Mercury heard a musical note and, after vainly trying to find a cause for the musical sound, twanged the string again and discovered the music in tightly-stretched strings. He set about making an instrument, using the tortoise shell for the sound box and stretching a number of strings of sinew across it. This is only a legend, of course, but if we examine the early musical instruments of the Greeks, which was the lyre, we always find the representation of a tortoise upon it.

Other nations, such as the early Chinese, the Persians, the Hindus and the Hebrews, had stringed instruments much resembling the lyre. In the tombs of the great rulers of Egypt are found representations of harps, and one harp which had been buried in one of the tombs for more than 3000 years was actually found to be in good condition.

Wherever we search among the records of early nations we find evidence that they were familiar with the music obtainable from playing upon stringed instruments, but we have never been able to discover what people or what persons first learned that music could be produced with such instruments.

~THE FIRST STRINGED MUSICAL INSTRUMENT~

The harp was probably the first practical stringed instrument. Its music was produced by picking the strings with the fingers or with a piece of bone or metal.