Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 31.djvu/656

 that its axis, as it is cut from the bark, be parallel with the axis of the tree on which the bark grew; but the broad, flat corks have to be cut perpendicular to the axis of the tree. Only the finest corks are now made by hand. A good workman can turn out, in the method described, about one thousand corks a day.

We give representations of three machines invented by Demuth, which are so simple in their operation that any one can make corks upon them at the first trial. The first machine cuts the cork into strips (Fig. 1); the second into squares—eight thousand a day with a



woman or a child to work it (Fig. 2). This machine separates the squares automatically, according to their sizes, and by an ingenious arrangement the knives are made to sharpen themselves by passing over a whetstone-rubber at each forward and return motion. With the third machine, for shaping the corks, five thousand corks may be finished in a day (Fig. 3). It is so arranged that the square of cork, firmly fastened between two pointed jaws, turns with them in front of a knife-blade, which is managed with the hand after the fashion of a plane. This blade is so connected by a chain-gearing with the jaws holding the cork, that the movements of the two tools are in harmony with one another. The parts of this machine can be arranged to cut corks of any size, and of cylindrical or conical shape as