Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/194

 The Betsey Rosses of Today Engaged in the Huge

��In the wave of patriotic fervor which is sweeping over the entire United States, the daily manufacture of flags and patri- otic emblems of every description has run up into many millions

��In spite of the fact that electrical ma- chinery of every available type is used, the produc- tion scarcely keeps pace with the de- mand. At left is shown the form used in cutting out stars of all sizes

���Above is shown a motor-driven cut- ting machine in operation on ma- terial for the blue flelds of the flags. These blue fields are cut in bulk, many hun- dreds of them at a single cutting. It is difficult to esti- mate the number of yards of bunting that have been cut up into flags since the United States announced her in- tention of joining the contestants in the great war

���As soon as the stars have been cut out they are pinned or pasted on the blue fields and then passed on to the operators of the electrically driven sewing machines. These seamstresses turn out an in- credible amount of work in a day

��At left: The stars being cut in a punch press. At each op- eration the steel die cuts through forty-eight folds of the white bunting, making forty-eight stars — enough for one complete flag — at one time. There are dies of all sizes of stars and eagles

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