Amity Related Articles

The making of wooden tooth picks and cigar lighters is indeed a novel industry. Here at Belmont, Allegany County, N. Y., let us enter the factory of Holbrook, Hart & Co., who makes what they call the "Perfection Soft" and "Peerless Hard" toothpicks, etc. Maple and popular wood is used. For cigar lighters, a Log 37 inches long, is put into a long veneering Machine which takes off ribbons one half of an inch thick. These ribbons are then hung up and dried, when they are put through a chopping machine and fastened in bundles, 300 of which go into a case. The ribbons for soft wood tooth picks are run through a chopping machine which makes 200 revolutions per minute, chopping through twenty layers of ribbons and making 4,000 or 5,000 tooth picks per minute. They are then run through a hopper and carried to the second floor, 120 x 40, which is used as a dry room. Here may be seen great piles of tooth picks as large as an average hay mow. Hard wood picks are made somewhat differently, as the wood is first scalded. This firm ships all over the United States and to foreign countries. There are but four factories of this kind, which have a capacity of 125,000 cases per year, while from 25,000 to 30,000 cases fully supply the demand. These factories therefore combine and keep production in its proper limits. White popular timber is largely used and is always purchased by this firm. Their building is four stories high and they make their own machines. Their goods have a heavy sale and a high reputation. Mr. F. L. Scoville last December became a member of the firm.—Steuben Signal.