Cork: Being the story of the origin of cork, the processes employed in its manufacture & its various uses in the world to-day

by Armstrong Cork Company

One of the Fourteen Storage Rooms, Pittsburgh Factory

Leaving the sorting room the corkwood is softened by placing it in a warm vapor bath. This process increases its flexibility greatly, its bulk slightly, and prepares it to undergo the various mechanical operations which follow in rapid succession.

Cork Punchings

The keen edge of the slicer first confronts the sheets of bark, and it is at this point that the first mechanical obstacle in cork manufacture has to be overcome, for the soft, light, elastic material is, withal, very difficult to cut, as may be determined by simple personal experiment.

One of the Corkwood Sorting Rooms at Pittsburgh

But before the onslaught of a circular steel knife, revolving hundreds of revolutions every minute and kept at razor-like sharpness, even this difficulty disappears, and the sheets are readily cut into strips whose width is determined by the length of the cork desired.

Cutting into Squares