NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



143 



marvels of the International Exhibition, declared 

 it to he the "most singular structure he ever saw." 

 One day I put a fly upon the outside of the web, 

 to ascertain what the functions of spiders which 

 I have called Avatchers, and patrols really were ; 

 for there were three or four inside under the pin- 

 nacle, and as many outside, wandering about all 

 day. The instant I put the fly upon the tent one 

 of the patrols swiftly ran close up to it, and then, 

 seeing the fly was, relatively to itself, a huge ani- 

 mal, ran away again. — All the Year Hound. 



For the AVfr Knsliit'il Fanner. 

 THE DOUGLAS AXE MANUFACTUBLRTG 

 COMPANY. 



Half a century ago, I)ea. Oliver Hunt, an 

 estimable citizen of East Douglas, pursued the 

 humble calling of a blacksmith, occupying an or- 

 dinary looking shop, still standing on the princi- 

 pal street of the village. He was one of those 

 hard-working, thinking men, of whom our free 

 country has furnished innumerable instances, who, 

 by constant uttention to some ordinary operation, 

 have finally brought out an article positively su- 

 perior to all competition, and have achieved a 

 name and a fortune for themselves, at the same 

 time conferring an incalculable benefit upon the 

 public. 



While attending to the usual duties of a coun- 

 try blacksmith, mending chains and carts, shoeing 

 horses, etc., he was frequently called upon to re- 

 pair a neighbor's axe, and succeeding well at this, 

 ne soon brought out an axe of his manufiicture, 

 and oflered it for sale. Henceforth the farmers 

 relied upon Dea. Hunt for their axes, and he, be- 

 ing encouraged by his success, soon sent a barrel 

 full of his axes to Providence for sale. Thus the 

 business was gradually established, and being en- 

 larged by his son, Dea. Wauren Hunt, the pres- 

 ent agent, continued to prosper until about the 

 year 1835, when the present company was incor- 

 porated. 



The Company has a capital of $300,000 invest- 

 ed in the manufacture of axes and edge tools. 

 It is not only the oldest but the largest establish- 

 ment of its kind in the United Staies or the 

 world. Its works, whicii are three in number, 

 each comprising several shops, are situated on the 

 Mumford river, which furnishes abundant water 

 power. It uses 1200 tons of iron per annum, 

 about one-half of which is imported, and the re- 

 mainder obtained from Pembroke and other 

 places in America. It also uses 250 tons of cast 

 steel much of which is procured from the works 

 at Fitchburg. Its forges consume 1800 tons of 

 coal per annum. 



To give a minute account of the various pro- 

 cesses which the material is subject to before it 

 arrives at the packing room a nicely burnished 

 axe, would require considerable jjractical knowl- 

 edge of the busmess, but the writer will endeavor 

 simply to commuTiicate some impressions which 

 were conveyed to his mind l)y a hasty walk through 

 the shops under the guidance of the obliging clerk 

 of the Company, Mr. Edwin Moore, to whom 

 he is indebted for much of the information com- 

 municated abovf. 



There are four distinct processes in axe-mak- 

 ing, namely, Forging, Grinding, Tempering, Pol- 

 ishing. 



1. Forginy. — The forging 8hoi)s are the largest. 



and require a larger number of hands than either 

 of the others. The first operation witnessed was 

 cutting. A solid bar of iron, 10 or 15 feet in 

 length, was brought in contact with a knife-look- 

 ing instrument, operated in the same manner as 

 the trip hammer, which cut the \)d.r into pieces of 

 appropriate length for medium sized axes with as 

 much apparent ease as the sturdy farmer's wife 

 slices up the remnant of cold pudding that re- 

 mains after the Thanksgiving dinner, and with a 

 rapidity that is truly astonishing. 



The pattern is then placed in the furnace and 

 steadily heated, after which it undergoes the pro- 

 cess of rolling, by which the eye is formed and 

 the pattern brought into such shape that a few- 

 strokes of the trip hammer and the perfecting of 

 the eye by a hand instrument, brings it into form 

 somewhat resembling an axe. The next workman 

 into whose hands it passes, and who is the fifth 

 operator upon it, completes the resemblance by 

 inserting in its open jaws a piece of steel taken 

 hot from the furnace, and constituting what is 

 called the bit. Afterwards it is welded, and ham- 

 mered, and smoothed, and after having been ex- 

 posed to the power of a long row of hammers of 

 different patterns, and having been in and out of 

 the furnace re])eatedly, it drops u])on the floor at 

 the opposite end of the room, looking full as 

 much like a finished axe as the one on exhibition 

 at the counting-room which Dea. Hunt hammered 

 out at the blacksmith shop over forty years ago. 



Each workman places certain marks upon the 

 axe, by means of which any defect that may af- 

 terwards be discovered is easily traced back to its 

 author in the forging room. 



2. Grinding is an operation with which every 

 one is more or less familiar and needs little ex- 

 planation. Tlie stones are of great size and re- 

 volve with great rapidity. The axe passes through 

 the hands of four grinders, one grinding the face, 

 another the sides, iJcc. 



3. Tempering. — The axe is heated until cherry 

 red and then plunged into strong brine, from 

 which it is taken out as hard as glass and exposed 

 to another fire, where it slowly reveals the chang- 

 es it is undergoing by the varying colors which 

 a])pear upon its surface. First appears a brazen 

 hue, then a cojjper color, dark and light blue giv- 

 ing place to other beautiful hues, constantly vary- 

 ing, and indicating material changes in the tem- 

 per of the axe. When the well-known color ap- 

 pears that indicates the right temper, it is plunged 

 into a tub of cold water and the process ceases. 

 This is an operation requiring a discriminating 

 eye and a degree of skill to be attained only by 

 constant practice. 



4. Polishing. — Wooden wheels are spread over 

 I with a thin coating of glue and then covered with 

 I coarse emery for the first operation. These wheels 

 i are made to revolve rapidly and the axes applied 



to them in the same manner as to the grindstone. 

 For the second operation called rolling, oil and 

 emery are used, and for the last, which is called 



i burnishing, very fine emery. Each workman pol- 



; ishes about one hundred axes per day. The goods 

 are now taken to an upper room and marked with 

 the name of the Company ; the heads are paiuted, 

 and after drying, are packed in boxes by dozens, 



I some with handles, and some without, and sent 



I to market. 



j Not less than twenty men have been employed 



