Boon For Housekeepers

1901

An ingenious inventor recently noticed that housekeepers frequently find it very difficult to keep their clotheslines in proper position, and, investigating further, he learned that all those who have occasion to use ropes or cords are often somewhat puzzled when they are called upon to tighten them or to maintain them in a strained position.

Consequently he set his brains to work and invented an instrument by means of which any rope or cord can be easily and securely tightened and held in position. The instrument consists of an iron rod, at one end of which are two other small, perpendicular rods, while at the other end is a wooden handle, similar to a crank, and which serves the same purpose. The slack portion of the cord is rolled around two perpendicular rods, and then by simply moving the crank the rope can be tightened to any extent desired. As soon as the crank begins to work the rope begins to wind itself around the rods, and when it is sufficiently tightened the free end can be securely fastened by means of a prop.

Artwork -- Wool Soap For Toilet and Bath -- Advertisement

1896

Wool Soap
For Toilet and Bath

Wool Soap is the most modern of all high grade White Floating Soaps for the Toilet and Bath and for Washing Silks, Laces, Woolens and all fine fabrics.

MADE ONLY BY
Swift and Company,
CHICAGO

Making Clothespins – From Log to Packing Box

1914

CLOTHESPIN MACHINES.

What Happens When a Log of Wood Starts Through Them.

Making clothespins is an industry that nets handsome returns to many American factories. At Martinsville, Ind., there is a factory which has a capacity of more than 200,000 clothespins a day.

A rough log started through the mill comes out as hundreds of the shapely little wooden pins familiar to the back yard. The logs are cut into blocks about sixteen inches long, which a headlong saw cuts into boards about five-eighths of an inch thick. A gang of saws cuts these boards into strips five-eighths of an inch square and each long enough to make four pins. These strips are placed on an automatic trimmer and cut to the required length. They are then conveyed to the automatic lathes, seven in number, each with a capacity of four dozen a minute. From the lathes the pins drop to the slotting machines and from these to the dryroom. where all moisture is removed. Next they go to the polishing cylinders, which are filled about half full of pins, chips and sawdust. The cylinders revolve slowly for four hours, after which the pins drop into chutes to be conveyed to the packing room. Each lathe has a capacity of 2,400 dozen pins a day. — St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Exclusive Lingerie Stolen From Line

Oakland, California, 1921

A burglar who will steal women's lingerie from a clothesline in the back yard is one of the lowest kind of thieves, according to Mrs. M. Rigelhupt, 831 East Sixteenth street. The lingerie, which was all made of silk and voile, was of exclusive patterns. Mrs. Rigelhupt had washed it and it was on the line drying. When she went out to bring in the clothes she found that all her lingerie was missing from the line. The police were notified and she values the garments at $75.

—Oakland Tribune, Oakland, California, May 18, 1921, page 2.