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The Handle Trade 



BKOOM HANDLE TRADE CONDITIONS 

 During the past month the sales of broom hauJles have exceeded 

 the same period of last year and indications are that trade will con- 

 tinue to be good during tlie rest of this year. One of the best 

 features of the trade has been the stiffening up of prices all along 

 the line. This is caused partly by the so-called lumber trust, hold- 

 ing up and a<lvancing prices, but most of it is caused by the inde- 

 innideut and smaller manufacturers trying to find out just what 

 their handles cost them. As soon as they can figure out the exact 

 cost of making a thousand handles, they will undoubtedly advance 

 their prices. It is hoped that in another year a reasonable juofit 

 will be realized on all grades of handles. 



MAPLE LUMBER AND ITS LOADING 

 ilaple lumber is getting harder to secure every year and it will 

 be but a few years until it will all be gone. Some manufacturers 

 use very poor .iudgment in handling and shipping their lumber. One 

 coneern recently received several cars of lumber that probably was 

 dry when ready to load, but had been loaded during a snowstorm, 

 or had been dragged over a snow pile, and the lumber was all wet 

 from the melted snow. Another car was received that did not have 

 any doors on it, and the ends of the lumber at the doors were 

 water soaked from the rains that it had met in its travels. There 

 is no excuse for this kind of work, and it is hard to understand 

 why a large lumber concern will spoil such good lumber, or at the 

 very least add to the charges by such careless handling. Some lum- 

 ber firms exercise much care in loading the cars so that they can 

 be unloaded quickly, while others seem to try to load them so 

 that they will be very hard to unload. One concern always loads 

 in both ends of the bottom of the ear twelve or fifteen courses of 

 lumber so that the ends will overlap each other, and then piles the 

 rest in very nicely. The top comes out very nicely, but both ends 

 of the bottom have to be unloaded at once, which takes about twice 

 as long as it would if the ends of the lumber were even instead 

 of overlapped. The lumber at the bottom of a car is the hardest 

 to get out, and if the lumber companies would load them straight 

 up from the bottom and leave the gangway open, it would facilitate 

 the matter of unloading to a yreat extent. 



TROUBLE WITH LATHES 

 Sometimes after a lathe has been run for several years it seems 

 almost impossible to get the handles as they should be. They will 

 be rough and "washboards" as it is oftert termed, and yet seem 

 to be tight in the bushing. One concern that had been having this 

 trouble for some time thought that the bearings were loose and 

 had them rebabbitted, but still rough handles were turned out. After 

 trying the expansion head and the knives, and experimenting for 

 some time, it finally discovered that while a handle would be tight 

 in the back part of the bushing, it would be loose at the front end 

 and at the heatl. The handles being run tight in the head and 

 bushing had worn both of them up to the finishing knife until they 

 were a good sixty-fourth of an iiuli larger than the size necessary. 

 Beyond the knife there was no sign of wear. Thus if the handles 

 were turned tight enough to fit the head, they would not go through 

 the back end of the bushing, and if they fit this i)art tightly, then 

 they would be loose in the head and front end. .The only remedy was 

 a new set f'lr all the lathes. 



KEEPING BELTS CLEAN 

 A broom handle plant is :i du>ty plaii' ami <me that is very 

 Lard on belts. In some factories, where leather belts are used 

 almost exclusively, it is found that belt dressing nuist be applied 

 almost continually. During the cold weather this becomes quite an 

 item of expense, as five pounils or more will be used each week. 

 One company writes in that it is trying an experiment on some of 

 its belts and thinks it will work out fine. It is boxing in some of 

 the belts, especially around the rip saw where they get the most 

 dirt, and around the sander. By this it hopes to be able to keep 

 these Ijelts clean, thus reducing the amount of dressing to be used. 



—34— 



FIGURING COST 



Every car of lumber that comes into the factory sliould lie worked 

 separately and every bit of expense should be charged to it, and 

 enough percentage of the cost of lumber and manufacturing added 

 to this to cover the overhead cost. Then the value of everything 

 saleable should be kept, and when the car is cumpleted and rSady 

 to ship, a statement is had that will show just what this car has 

 tloue. Many firms do not do this, but strike a trial balance at the 

 end of every three months or at the end of the year. This, of 

 course, shows them just what they have made or lost during this 

 time, but it does not show where this loss or gain was. As far as 

 tliey know every car made a loss or a profit, or some went one way 

 and some the other. Now, I don't believe that this is right. We 

 buy lumber from a number of different firms — in fact, wherever 

 we can get it — and I want to know just what each car is worth to 

 us, so I use the system above, and while in some respects there is 

 a good deal of trouble connected with it, yet 1 find that in the 

 long run it pays and pays big. I have known firms that would 

 ship in a dozen cars that were all right and then slip in several 

 that, while they looked and seemed graded all right, were a little 

 under size and so close to the mark that they did not show a profit. 

 Then again, after receiving a number of ears that were good, 

 the inspector would get careless, supposing that they were all the 

 same, and so would give them a chance to slip one over on us. 



This system of cost accounting is a help when making up an order 

 of special handles, as it shows just what profit or loss is made on 

 them. In working out this system, I do not keep any account of 

 the waste and culls, as it sonietimes is impossible to keep track of 

 them. We can 't work them as fast as they accumulate, but ha\ c 

 to lot them pile up on us, and then work them up into dimension 

 stock, or the cull handles and blanks into tuy handles or small 

 turnings. This kind of stock sells at so low a jirice that we figure 

 on a profit only on the labor in getting them out, and so keep 

 a separate acccniut on them. This waste is one of the hardest 

 things a handle man has to deal with. It is almost impossible to 

 get a mill that will cut the lumber the proper lengths. We esti- 

 mate, and I don't think that we are far off, that at least twenty- 

 five per cent of all the lumber that we get in goes (uit in waste at 

 the cutoff saw, the rip saw, lathes and the inspection rack. This is 

 what iriakes the cost of producing broom handles so high, and is 

 one of the things that some firms do not consider. If we have lum- 

 ber of the proper thickness and correct lengths, we can cut close 

 to three thousand broom han<lle blanks from a thousand feet board 

 measure, but the way it usually comes, in all lengths from six 

 feet to twenty, it does not average two thousand blanks. Wide 

 boards will run a good many more blanks than the narrow ones 

 with less waste, so the high-grade lumber is the best for our use. 



If. B. .\l.EXAXDER. 



Exports and Imports of Aeroplanes and Automobiles 



.Vcriijtlant's .-I nil nnloniuliilt's ai'r I'l'.-nniin;^ a Inrl.n n\' inlcrnaliona! 

 commerce. The government records show that $.50,0110 worth of aero- 

 jjlancs were imported into this country and exported during July, 

 August .and September of this year. 



During the first nine months of the year 070 automobiles, valued 

 at $1,4.50,222, were imported into the United States, as against 809, 

 with a value of .$1,623,140, in the corresponding nu)nths of 1910. 

 Various types of autoiuobiles are still being im|i(irti'd from France, 

 Germany, the United Kingdom and Ital.v. During the same period of 

 1911, the United States cx]iorted 11,244 automobiles, having ,a value 

 of $U,.'5G.'5,Oa4, against 0,472, with a value of $S,S7 l.oiiO, in a like 

 [leriod of 1910. 



The coimtry's largest buyer of automobiles is Canada, although a 

 considerable number go to the United Kingdom. France and other 

 European countries. Some shipments are also in.idi' (o Mexico, the 

 West Indies and v;irious countries of Smith .Vimricii, .\sia, Oceani.'i 

 and Africa. 



