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HE subject of sanding is so broad and so exhaustless that no attempt will be made in this series to consider the problem in its logical sequence from the time of the first sanding operation to the present day. The writer will endeavor, in a general way, to treat with the various phases of this topic that may be of interest to the furniture manufacturing industry today, without particular regard to the methods employed by past generations. Some, far too many, plants still employ methods that were used in the days of our great grandfathers, but the signs of the times indicate that these all will soon be discarded for better ways.

at the other end and only the finest material being sifted through. The sifted product is next passed through a series of vibrating separators, which determine the different sizes and extreme exactness and uniformity.

All kinds of sand and emery paper, and cloth are made in rolls as large as that used in the printing of a daily paper. The process is continuous to such an extent that while the paper is still coming from the roll at one end the finished product is being re-rolled at the other end. The first step in the process is the printing of the brand, which is done by passing through a roller press. The paper next dips into the glue, which is applied very hot, rubber buffers preventing its spreading to the other side of the paper. From this it passes under brushes which distribute the glue evenly. It next passes under a shower of grit desired, the surplus falling off by gravity at the first turn. A further application of a thin solution of glue gives an extra coating which thoroughly cements all the particles.

The evolution of sanding machines has been so rapid in the past few years that a difficult problem is presented to the man who desires to put his plant on a truly efficient basis and for that reason machines will receive considerable mention in this series of articles. Forty years ago there were no sanding machines, and today their number is legion. Some are so similar that the writer often wonders why some manufacturers of these machines do not spend more time trying to evolve an absolutely new one rather than to find some little "improvement" that they can apply to another fellow's invention and claim that the new machine is the best on the market. The claim may be justified, but the chances are that the original producer would have perfected his machine to the same extent in a short time, and if the one who tried to bring out the other fellow's ideas in a new way had concentrated his energies towards the production of a radically different machine the probabilities are that mankind would have been the greater benefited. That for a gentle knock at the fellow who would recoil in anger if it was suggested that he rob a man at the point of a revolver, but who does not hesitate to rob by some infringement if he can get away with it. "Sandpaper" a Misnomer

In the general discussion of the sanding problem let us first take up the material and see how it is made. The term "sandpaper" is a misnomer, as sand is not used, the material itself being crushed flint rock, or quartz. Flint rock, when fractured, presents the sharpest edges procurable, whereas natural sand examined under a microscope will be found to have a rounded appearance, the cutting edges being considerably dulled by the action of wind and water. The "garnet" paper is made by the use of garnet ore, which is secured in the United States and abroad. It is not quite so sharp as flint rock, the particles fracturing at right angles, but the edges are more durable. In grinding the quartz, the material, in the form of large chunks, is first passed through crushers which are graduated to produce the desired grit. The material is then carried to the sifting rollers, which are in reality skeleton cylinders covered with fine bolting cloth. The material passes through the inside of these cylinders, which are placed at an angle, the large pieces passing out

Completing the Paper

From this the paper passes over a hot blast drier and is suspended in long loops, traveling slowly for a considerable distance, to be finally rolled into a finished state. If sheets are desired, they are cut by running the paper from the rolls through a cutter which drops them out, automatically counted, and delivered so that they may be easily assembled in quires and reams.

The cost of sanding in any plant is affected to no inconsiderable degree by the kind of material used, and the care taken to keep it in good shape and get the best results. Some concerns go on year in and year out using the same kind of paper and making no effort to find out whether or not they can reduce the cost by the purchase of other kinds. Naturally, if good results are being obtained with what is in use and the operators are taking kindly to its use, it would be folly to switch to another brand before its absolute value could be determined. Even by properly caring for the material that is liked, many dollars may be saved during the year.

Many Kinds

The various combinations of sandpaper are, apparently, as numerous as the sands of the sea. These combinations are caused by the somewhat different methods of making paper and the different materials that go into it, the innumerable substances used in glue, and the various methods of manufacturing. Experiments gen

erally show that the lowest-priced product does not usually cost the least in the end. It has neither the wearing qualities nor the grit necessary for good work. In testing the product of one manufacturer against that of another, always bear in mind that the numbers/used by one may vary slightly from those used by another. For instance, one may make a "Number 1" that is as coarse as a "Number 112" made by someone else. So

you must make the grits identical to get a fair compari

son.

The writer once worked in a factory where the testing of this material was such a fixture that the operators learned that the best was none too good, and they were ever on the lookout for a lot that was not up to the standard. All paper not in use there was kept in a special store-room having a perfectly dry atmosphere and a temperature of 75 to 80 degrees. Thus the glue was not given a chance to absorb any moisture and the paper was kept in excellent condition. Rolls were stored on end rather than piled on each other horizontally. Spare belts were made up in advance and hung on pegs to be exchanged for old ones as necessity required.

Testing the Paper

When it comes to actual tests the strength and quality of the paper itself is first determined by tearing the paper from each edge. If it tears fairly straight in one direction it is of the kind known as cylinder and has the strength all in one direction, which is not an especially good quality. The best in paper for sanding products is what is known as "fourdriner." This will not tear straight from any direction since it has no grain, because the fibers are distributed in such a way that the strength is equal in each direction. Next a quantity of each of the kinds to be tested is taken from each roll, or package, and kept in the store-room for several days, until it is reasonably certain that all are in the same condition. They are then given the bending test. When bent, the paper should give a snapping sound and when bent sharply the particles should not, to any extent, loosen and drop off.

Some of each of the pieces are placed in a moisture box, made for just this purpose. While these pieces are in the dampness the work of trying out the dry ones goes on. Several blocks of the same kind of wood, which have been thoroughly dried in the kiln and planed, are fastened to a bench pitched to a sharp angle. The pieces of paper are fastened to small heads at the end of rods operated from the same crank. These heads drop over the pieces of wood and the machine is started. The incline of the bench allows the sand dust to drop off, and the pressure of each of the heads is the same. Thus it will be seen that the paper gets uniform work.

An examination is made at various intervals and the time that it takes to wear down to the paper itself is noted. Then a test is made on the same machine by rubbing two pieces of different makes together. The same brand usually shows most favorable under both these rubbing tests. The same process is gone through with the pieces that have been in the moisture box but

material and the other half of the other. Naturally both parts get the same work and an examination tells which is wearing the better.

This is the first of the articles on this subject by Mr. Maine. The next one will appear in the July number.

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Belonging to an Organization

LENTY of manufacturers have had trouble with the fake advertising solicitor or the real advertising solicitor for the advertising fake. That evil, like the evil of the little bunch of tickets to the Hod Carriers' ball (costing only $5), is always with them. Another great abuse; it is the abuse of the jobbers' catalog. There are jobbers' catalogs which may justly claim that pages here and pages there in their eightpound volumes are worth the money, provided the price per page is not too high; but usually (as I don't hesitate to say) the price is far too high. And now and then it happens that the publisher of the jobbers' catalog, who may possibly be the jobber himself, tries to coerce the manufacturer into taking "advertising space" in that big book of his. The moment force is used, or is attempted to be used, then the proposition becomes thoroughly bad, and if the manufacturer thinks that he cannot, single-handed, resist this appeal, then he is indeed much to be pitied; he is about to be knocked down and dragged out and robbed. I have known of sums as high as $500 to be demanded, and sums as large as $250 to be returned, the sum of $500 then to be demanded still more boldly than before.

But the case of the manufacturer is not entirely hopeless if he belongs to a sufficiently strong organization in his industry. He can appeal to that, and if the members of that organization are only sufficiently sincere in going after palpable abuses and in passing resolutions to the effect that they will certainly do it in concert, then the rest is easy. Your hold-up artist hesitates to go against the whole crowd. He has done it in times past, it is true, but where a group of honest, determined and decent men in an industry really conclude to oppose him cooperatively, he cannot last long.

This, by the way, is a hint, not intended to be especially gentle, to those benighted individuals, now adorning the manufacturer group in this country by being members of it, who can't see that there is any reason why they should become members of the organization in their industry. If they live long enough and continue in business, and if they ever take the time to read anything, they will find out in time that there was something after all in that fine old fable of the bundle of sticks.How.

has withstood the dampness.

Keeping the Tests of Papers

As before stated, the operators are watching for any falling off in quality, and if a complaint is made that a lot is not up to standard the tests are immediately made. Since records are kept of all tests, it can readily be seen that these examinations result in the selection of the best kind of paper for the several requirements. These same tests apply to cloth. The process of testing may seem foolish to many, but in one instance it was estimated that it cut down the sanding costs 8.1 per cent in one year, or at least was influential in producing this saving.

It was in the factory of the Phoenix Chair Company that the writer learned a wrinkle that was new to him when it came to testing material used in making belts. There, when they want to test one make against another, they make up a belt in two equal parts, one half of one

T

HE employe who does a thing cheerfully and alertly after being told once is the employe who gets our money most cheerfully. He is the employe that we want to stick with us. He is the one that we are afraid will leave us because some other firm has offered him a larger salary.

We can easily fill the place of any other kind of an employe in our store, but we cannot easily fill his. If he should leave us it would put a temporary crimp in the business and a temporary crimp in our peace of mind, and we are not fond of temporary crimps. So we will keep our eye on this employe and for safety's sake keep his wages up to the limit of possibility. For he is the most profitable employe we have on our pay roll.

So, here's to him-to the employe who does a thing cheerfully and alertly after being told once.

He is a genius.-Hardware Trade.

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By C. M.

HERE is the foreman who has not been confronted with the difficulty of solving the problem of the late-comer? The problem presented by the man who persists in getting to work just in time to be late has in some shops been partially solved by the use of time clocks. But there are some men who come late in spite of the time clock. The loss of fifteen minutes' time does not prevent them coming two minutes late. If a man works on a machine, the time of the machine is of more value than the time of the man, therefore to have the machine idle for fifteen minutes or half an hour in order that the man may not be paid for five minutes more than he works, is not true economy and does not, therefore, solve the problem of the late-comer.

Some years ago, when the writer was foreman in a certain shop, a man came to us to seek employment. This man had the reputation of always being late for work. When the factory whistle would blow he would be about three hundred yards away and at the first sound he would break into a run and arrive in his department just after the other men had nicely settled down to work. The foreman he had been with before coming to us, we afterward learned, had unsuccessfully exhausted every method known to him to break up the habit. For some considerable time, I, too, thought him beyond redemption and was about to give up when, one morning, I saw him sneaking in. He knew that I was aware that he was late, but he wanted to get to his bench and start work before coming in contact with me. He seemed to think that all danger was over if he could only do that. This inspired me with a new idea. If I could so arrange things that this man would have to come in contact with me before starting work every time he was late I believed the habit could be broken up.

I was in the habit of going through each department immediately after the whistle blew, and I informed the men that any who were not at their bench when I passed through would not be credited with time until they reported to me in person. I was not supposed to credit them with time unless I had personal knowledge that they were on the job, and I could not know that they were on the job, nor when they started, if I did not see them.

At first this man tried to ignore the rule. The following morning he was not at his bench when the whistle blew and I made it a point not to go near his bench for an hour. When I did so he was there and I said to him in a surprised tone of voice: "When did you start? I did not see you here when I passed through at 7 o'clock."

"I started about a minute after seven," he replied. "I have no knowledge of that," I replied. "You know the rule that a man coming in after the whistle blows must report before starting work."

MACKAY

fixed things up all o. k. and the problem of the late-comer was solved.

But it was not the loss of a few hours' pay that solved the problem. That merely showed him the necessity of reporting. What did the work was the fact that he had to face me every time he was late. And it was not because of what I would say to him that he dreaded to report, because I never did more than look at my watch then look at him and tell him to go to work.

Why did this man come late? It was habit. He got in the habit of hanging 'round home until a certain time and although he knew he would be late and would have to sneak in the shop, he did not seem to have the power to break it off. To the man who is in the habit of getting to work on time it seems to be a silly thing for a man to talk about it being hard to break off the habit of getting there late. But it is hard just the same. It is such an easy thing for the punctual man to be on time that he cannot understand how a man can do otherwise than be on time. But nearly everything we do is the result of habit and it is as hard to break off a bad habit as it is to break off a good one.

Some men cultivate the habit of neatness. They are neat about their person, and neat about their work, and they cannot understand how a man can be anything else, and it disturbs them to see a man careless about his work. Other men fall into slovenly habits and although they sometimes feel that it would be to their advantage to be more careful, they lack the necessary element in their makeup which enables one to be neat and tidy because they have never cultivated it.

When the writer was at college he was taught, or forced, to acquire a habit that has clung to him ever since that of punctuality. We were told to consider punctuality in all things as a part of the curriculum. Be punctual in entering the class-room and punctual in leaving. There is a time for everything and everything should be done in its own time.

I remember a boy in a shop where I once worked who dropped his tools at the first sound of the whistle to quit and was always the first to get out of the shop. The foreman noticed this and called him aside one day and said it looked bad to see him leading the line of men out of the shop every quitting time. It would be better to wait a minute or two than to drop his tools at the first sound of the whistle and then get out.

The boy answered: "I start with the first sound of the whistle, why should I not stop with it?" And all the foreman could say was: "It looks bad."

That was bad advice the foreman gave that boy, and if followed would lead the boy to practice deception. The intention was to have the boy try to create the impression that he was so interested in his work that he was in no hurry to leave it. Every man or boy should be ready to quit his work when the moment to quit arrives, because every moment of everybody's life has its own duties and obligations, and if a man lingers a moment longer than necessary at one thing some other thing is robbed of that much time. Every man should leave his work when leaving time arrives and if he does not, and makes it a point to remain a few minutes after,

Something like this happened two or three times, and when pay day came and the man found his pay two or three hours short of what he figured on he began to see that we meant what we said. There was a little fireworks over the time shortage, but a firm hand in a velvet glove

he does it either from a motive, or without a motive, neither of which is commendable.

No man should go through life aimlessly. Everything a man does should be done for a definite purpose, and according to some well-defined plan. We have all heard of the cabinet-maker who was making a judge's chair for a court room. A fellow workman thought he was giving more attention to details than was necessary and inquired the reason. The reply was: "I intend to sit on this bench myself some day." And he did, and in after years became one of the foremost judges in the land. He had a definite object before him.

This is an age in which if one would succeed he must live the "strenuous life," but this strenuousness may be relieved somewhat if one will, as far as practicable, take some system into his life. Have a time for everything. Take the great financial magnates of our day-men who are connected with scores of enterprises. These diversified interests could never be looked after except according to a plan. So much time for this and so much for the other, and each in its appointed time. Let every man be punctual in attending to the small things and use them as stepping-stones to the higher things of life.

The Law of It

Validity of Sunday Transactions

An order for goods taken by a traveling salesman on Sunday is not invalid on that account, if it is accepted by the seller on a week day. (Alabama Supreme Court, Wheeler vs. Krohn, Fechheimer & Company, 64 Southern Reporter 179.)

Wrongful Competition With Own Corporation

One who has become an officer and director of a business corporation may be enjoined from setting up a competing business in such a way as to imperil the success of the company. (New Jersey Court of Chancery, Hussong Dyeing Machine Company vs. Morris, 89 Atlantic Reporter 249.)

Conclusiveness of Bill of Lading

A recital in a bill of lading that the freight covered by it was apparently in good order when received by the railway company is not conclusive, and it is open to the company to show that it was in fact in bad order. (North Carolina Supreme Court, Lyon vs. Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company, 81 Southeastern Reporter, 1.)

Duty to Warn Employe Against Danger

A furniture manufacturer owes a duty to warn inexperienced employes against recurrence of dangers which have arisen in the work, if he does not know of them, as where the treadle controlling the power of a machine had caught under passing trucks. (Michigan Supreme Court, Berkey vs. American Seating Company, 146 Northwestern Reporter, 247.)

Deduction for Defective Quality of Fixtures

A purchaser who claims a deduction from the price of fixtures, on account of their failure to come up to the requirements of the contract under which they were sold, has the burden of showing the extent to which he is entitled to a deduction. (Georgia Supreme Court, Muller vs. Ludlow-Taylor Wire Co., 81 Southeastern Reporter, 127.)

Rights Under Contracts of Apprenticeship

An apprentice, who was discharged for neglecting his duties because his employer refused to pay him larger

wages than were called for by the contract of apprenticeship, was not entitled to recover an additional daily allowance which the agreement called for in the event that he should perform his part of the contract for the full term of apprenticeship. (Michigan Supreme Court, Lepan vs. MacKinnon Boiler & Machine Company, 144 Northwestern Reporter 693.)

Authority of Shipper's Agent

When one authorizes another to ship property belonging to the former, he is bound by an agreement made by the latter with the carrying railway company that its liability, in case of loss of, or injury to, the shipment, shall be restricted to a stated amount less than the actual value of the shipment. (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Johnson vs. N. Y., N. H. & H. R. R. Co., 104 Northeastern Reporter, 445.)

Individual Liability of Public Committee

A committee of citizens who contracted with a furniture manufacturer for use of furniture, etc., during a Confederate Reunion, the manufacturer knowing that the only funds available for payment were derived from popular subscriptions and a public appropriation, are not individually liable for a deficiency of funds to pay the agreed price of the service. (Arkansas Supreme Court, Little Rock Furniture Manufacturing Company vs. Kavanaugh, 164 Southwestern Reporter, 289.)

Effect of Orders for Goods

If a clause in a printed form for the order of goods, stating in effect that no representations have been made by the salesman except as noted in the order, is stricken out, it will be presumed that other representations have been made and the buyer will be permitted to show other statements. An order is not binding upon the seller until accepted by him, but the acceptance need not be signified in writing. (Indiana Appellate Court, King vs. Edward Thompson Company, 104 Northeastern Reporter 106.)

Remedy Against Buyer for Breach

When one who has contracted to buy goods which have been specifically identified announces in advance of shipment by the seller that he will not accept delivery of the same, on the terms agreed upon, the seller is entitled to hold the goods subject to the buyer's order and sue for the contract price, plus the cost of caring for the property, or he may sell the goods to the best advantage for the buyer's account and recover the excess of the agreed price over the contract price. (Wisconsin Supreme Court, Haueter vs. Marty, 145 Northwestern Reporter 775.)

Validity of Workmen's Compensation

The provisions of the Illinois Workmen's Compensation Act are not unconstitutional as amounting to class legislation. And, since the law is not compulsory against employers, they cannot assert that it is invalid because it provides for arbitration of disputes which ordinarily can be settled by the courts. Nor is the provision which requires an injured employe to submit to a physical examination to determine the nature and extent of his injuries unconstitutional as an invasion of personal rights. Finally, it is held that the provisions of the law which make a claim against an employer on account of an injury a preferred claim, and which limit the right to compromise such a claim invalid as abridging the constitutional right of liberty to contract. (Illinois Supreme Court, Deibeikis vs. Link Belt Company, 104 Northeastern Reporter 211.)