USES OF COMMERCIAL WOODS. 45 



rules, palettes, picture frames, an^l panels on which j^ictures are 

 i:>ainted. 



Its use in the manufacture of athletic goods and apparatus and in 

 the boards and other paraphernalia for games is general. It is 

 frequently seen in baseball bats, croquet balls and mallets, billiard 

 cues and rings, and in dumb-bells, horizontal bars, Indian clubs, 

 and carom cues and rings. Bowling alleys find no wood better 

 suited, and it is made into tenpins and racks and into frames for 

 boxing machines. 



In the manufacture of shuttles, spools, and bobbins sugar maple 

 holds an important rank. It stands first in North Carolma (though 

 some silver maple may be included) and second in ^lassachusetts, 

 where it is exceeded by paper birch. It is often seen in large spools 

 made in three pieces, it being the central shaft on which the ends 

 are fastened. The wood is made into picker sticks for cotton mills 

 in Xorth Carolina, and forms parts of looms and weaving and spin- 

 ning machines. 



Carj^et sweepers are often made of maple, and the easels or racks 

 where the sweepers are kept when not in use are of the same ma- 

 terial. It is a common material also in the manufacture of school 

 apparatus, such as stands for globes, frames on which to display 

 charts, blocks illustrating mathematical forms and figures, and ma- 

 terial for manual training classes. 



Round measures, sometimes called '' nest boxes.*' are frequently 

 of this wood, particularly the bent wood forming the sides. This 

 is of thick veneer, usually one ply, but occasionally three. The 

 utensils are used in grocery, grain, and seed stores, and by millers and 

 farmers. In capacity they range from a pint to a bushel. Sieve 

 rims belong in the same class. 



Sugar maple competes with black gum for first place in the manu- 

 facture of rollers of many kinds — those employed in moving houses 

 and other very heavy bodies; in off-bearing tables of sawmills; in 

 shoving timbers ashore from ships and bo?ts: and in mines as run- 

 A^ays for cables. The wood is exported to England for mine rollers. 

 Land and lawn rollers of several sizes are made of sugar maple. 



The pipes employed to carry away the impure water from coal 

 mines, particularly the Pennsylvania anthracite mines, are required 

 to withstand strong chemicals. Many operators prefer wood to 

 metal, and maple is among the best woods for the purpose. Similar 

 pipes serve in tanneries and packing houses. 



In Massachusetts maple is more largely employed in brush-back 

 making than any other wood except paper birch. It is in demand 

 for blue-print frames and the printing frames used by photographers, 

 for die blocks and die-block cases, and for gas-engine !-kids and the 

 frames for portable sawmills. Pulley makers find the strength, 



