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Show A tork Factory. A cork factory is an odd place. Scarcely a sound comes from the buildings where the industry is carried car-ried on. Noiseless machinery whirls Willi great rapidity, the only sound hcaru is that of escaping steam. Cork Is soft and elastic, as everybody knows, and is the bark of a sc!es of oak which grows abundantly in Portugal, Italy and -jfein, princiialiy in Sjaln. The trees grow to a prodigious size and live to the ripe old ae of 150 years. At fifteen they begin to bear and continue to furnish new crojis of bark every five year?. The harvesting occurs in the early spring. Incisions are made around I he trees and the bark isstripiied ofl". It is then bailed to take out the say, after which it passcx through the pressing process. When dry- it Is cut, scrated, trimmed and tail up in bales like cotton for shipment. At tbe factories it is placed in a square box and steamed to soften it, so tha: it can be easily worked. Then it goes to the sa.vnnd is cut into strips. From the saw the strips go la the Kindling machine. From a strip of bark a trillu over a foot long only a dozen corks can be made, and half of tbe material is lost. But tlie waste does not end here. liven the cut corks have to be sorted and a goodiy number are rejected. So that isone of the characteristic features fea-tures of the manufacture of- cork. Within the last tew years, however, uses have been found for tlie-e scrap', which have considerably lessened the manufacturer's loss. After being punched Into circular form the corks go to the tajwrlng machine, where their final preparation prepara-tion c-mw. This Is by far the most Interestingpartof this interesting Industry. In-dustry. The corks are put Into an Iron hand, which conveys them to an Imaginary mouth, when up comes the knife and the. shavings fly. The finished cork then droia out of plase to make room for anothur. The capacity of the machine ma-chine is about 10"J gross per day. Hut bott!c-toppers are not the only things which are made of cork. Many specialties, such as cork-washers cork-washers of various sizes, caps for pocket flasks and oil cans, and sliced corks arc manufactured also. Sliced cork Is used for insoles. It is also used in silk machinery where friction fric-tion occurs. Before uses were discovered for the waste, soma hundreds of tons were burned up every month, and thousands of dollars were lost In this way. Things are diOerent now, however. All the waste Is made Into life-preservers, cork-jacket, cork-sprinkled paper, ln which glass is packed, nud linoleum. This pulverized stuff is also extensively used to jack Malsga grapes In, being be-ing handy, safe, and light. Bed mattresses and yaiht cusnlons arei also made of the shavings. M eehan-'KWfA'eifs. eehan-'KWfA'eifs. I |