Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1885 — About Pegs. [ARTICLE]

About Pegs.

It was the privilege of the writer to visit the picturesque little town of Arlington, Vermont, which at the time boasted a population of 2,500, three churches, five stores, two hotels, an extensive car works, sash and blind and chair factory; also a “peg factory," which, by the courtesy of the foreman, Mr. L. E. White, (who had been employed there twenty-nine years), he was shown through, and received valuable information. The timber used is black and yellow birch, which is cut into pieces four feet in length, varying in diameter from eight to fourteen inches. These logs are placed in a building in winter and the frost extracted by steam. They are then run on a tram railway to the circular-saw department, and cut into silces or blanks of the thicknessdesired for the length Of the pegs. These are sorted and the knots cut out, and are then passed on to a long bench which contains six machines composed of fluted rollers. Theblanks are then run between these rollers,which creases both sides. They are then run through again to cross-crease, or mark out the exact sizes of the pegs. Then they go to the splitting machines, which are set with double knives, and cut the blanks into pegs. As they pass the last machine they are sorted, and all knots and discolored ones removed as they are brushed off into large baskets. These machines are under the care young women, who appeared much more happy and useful than do many of thdse who, thumping at their piano, would consider such employment menial The next process is bleaching, which is accomplished by the fumes of brimstone, which is unhealthy (those why labor here shorten their lives). They are then placed in large cylinders, which hold eleven barrels, and have 600 steam pipes running through them, and revolve one and a half times to the minute, drying two charges per day to each cylinder. They are then passed into large, wooden casks or cylinders, which, revolving rapidly, polish them by the friction, the refuse falling through wire sieves or screen openings, after which they are again passed into a sifter, which separates all the single pegs, and drops them into tubs or boxes, leaving those which have not been separated in the machine. They are put up in barrels ready for market The factory running on full time turns out 150 bushels, or fifty barrels, per day. The sizes go from eight up to sixteen to an inch. The lengths go by eighths, two and one-half to twelve. Twentysix hands are employed, half of them being women. The products of this mill are mostly shipped to Germany and France, and enter largely into the manufacture of toys and fancy goods, as well as into the shoe manufactory. Thus the “genii of mechanism” converts, as by magis, the trees from the Vermont mountains into articles of use, which, floating off through the channels of commerce to far-away countries, anon return, to sparkle the eyes of happy children, in toys in which these pegs have become important factors.— New York Mail.