Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1884 — Spool-Making. [ARTICLE]

Spool-Making.

Spools are made in immense numbers. One factory turns out 100,000 gross a day, and consumes 2,500 cords of birch wood annually. The wood is first sawed into sticks four or five feet long, ami from seven-eighths of an inch to three inches square, according to the size of the spool to be produced. These sticks, after being thoroughly seasoned, are sawed into short blocks, and the blocks are dried in 'a hot-air kiln. At the time they are sawed a hole is bored through them. The spool machine is managed by a boy, who throws out the knotty or defective pieces. The spools polish themselves by their motion and contact in revolving drums. Some of the spools are dyed yellow, red, or black; others are ready for use when they leave the drums. The number of yards of cotton on a spool is determined by the size of the spool. The cotton is never measured, But the spool is gauged to contain 100, 200, or 500 yards, as the case may be. Silk and linen firms always send to their spool-makers patterns giving the size and shape of the barrel and of the head and bevel, which determine the amount of silk or thread that the spool will hold.— Pittsburgh Dispatch.