Cork: Its Origin and Industrial Uses

Part 1

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CORK: Its Origin and Industrial Uses

BY GILBERT E. STECHER

Illustrated

NEW YORK D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY 25 PARK PLACE 1914

COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY

PREFACE

This monograph is not an attempt to put before the reading public a scientific exposition of the merits and qualities of the Quercus Suber or Quercus Liber (Linnæus), and carry it up into the heights of learning where none but the learned may go; but to set forth in as concise a manner as possible, the plain story of the corkwood stopper so well known to all. The corkwood as seen in the stopper and in many other articles of trade, has long been of service to man, and remained unnoticed in journals of science, but for a word here and there—and in trying to acquaint myself with its generalities, found it most difficult to get even these. This rather impressed me as being singular, a material so largely used and so little to its credit, in literature, that I pressed my investigations only to find that the farther I searched the less I found.

The few facts gleaned were of interest, and it occurred to me to put them together in some readable form, for future reference. But as I reflected upon the unsuccessful attempt to get information, which was made in behalf of my studies, I promptly decided to go into the subject deep enough to cover all the facts and the result is this monograph—Quercus Suber—

It is presented with the hope that it will help others who seek a knowledge of corkwood and is only intended as a résumé of a very interesting subject. I have endeavored to give credit to those to whom it is due and offer my results as a tribute to a material that stands in a class worthy of the scientists’ as well as the commercialists’ esteem.

G. E. STECHER. June 15, 1914.

CONTENTS

PAGE Quercus Suber (Cork) 3

Quercus Liber (Linnæus) 5

Cork 7

Origin 9 Including the territory of growth and attempts to transplant the seed.

The Tree and Growth 12

Diseases 16

Stripping 17

Botany and Chemistry 22 Including compression diagram.

Uses and Application 39

Substitutes 53

Manufacture 55 Raw stock. Sorting. Stopper making. Cork Disc making. Waste utilization.

Extent of the Manufacturing Industry 71

Appendix 76

CORK: Its Origin and Industrial Uses

QUERCUS SUBER—

“CORK”

Part 2

The material of which this monograph treats has become of double interest because of its shrouded mystery, which has never been pierced to the extent of giving the world a complete and comprehensive story. The mysticism does not encompass its utility and general uses nor its native land, as these are well known, but is more associated with its character, composition and chemical makeup.

Its uses may be traced far back into the misty past that is dim to us, but from the faint scroll of history looms up in the mind’s eye as an epoch that we may have been glad to know, and although the references are few, by carefully analyzing them we may glean somewhat of its lineage.

The arcana attending it have been revealed to a few, who no doubt, through curiosity, have endeavored to penetrate its obscurity, but unfortunately have not written extensively upon the subject, instead leaving a meager memorandum of their findings. The years of its use have given very little knowledge of it to us, the reason perhaps being the lack of competition and therefore no necessity for a close scrutiny to find additional qualities to recommend it above others. And an additional mystery is that it has been in use for so many years and so little said about it. Its latent qualities have mystified those who have handled it for years, and from them we can learn very little; so it will be of interest to peruse practically all that has been written, incorporated in this treatise, with the addition of the latest investigations upon the subject. To present this in a form which will give credit to the small but authoritative references and place them in their proper order, together with other recent data, was no small task, and in presenting the total matter in concise style meant the weeding out of all extraneous language or superfluous description.

In considering this material, it may be well to start with a few precursory remarks as to the etymology of the words by which it has been designated in the past and is now known, as by so doing it will convey a better understanding of the material to follow.

QUERCUS LIBER (Linnæus)

The above name is the true one of the material under discussion and is derived from the Latin. Quercus; Italian or esculent oak sacred to Jupiter. Liber; binding or surrounding; hence surrounding of the oak or bark of the oak, sacred to Jupiter.

“QUERCUS SUBER”

This, its definite name, undoubtedly conveyed some particular meaning to the ancients, but research fails to reveal any definition of the word “Suber.” “The word is so far a puzzle to philologists. Forcellini in his great dictionary of Latin says that it is perhaps connected with the Greek word (συφαρ = suphar), which means ‘an old wrinkled skin, as, for instance, the cast-off skin of a snake.’ If this derivation be sound, the Romans, in using the word, thought at the outset primarily of the rough bark of the tree and then of the tree as a whole. Forcellini quotes also an opinion of Isidorus Hispalensis upon the longer form of ‘Suber,’ i.e., Suberies, to the effect that this form is derived from ‘sus’ (swine) and ‘edo’ (eat) because swine eat the acorns. But this is a purely popular etymology. I find too that Scaliger derived it from the verb ‘Subio’ ‘to come up from below’ because cork will not stay down in water. Vaniçek, in his Etymologisches Wörterbuch, classes ‘Suber’ among the dunkel words, and in the new and most elaborate Historische Grammatic of Stolz the word is not mentioned at all in the treatment of roots. Even Otto Keller in his work on Etymologies has nothing to say about it.”

Letter from Prof. Nelson G. McCrea of Columbia University, June 12, 1910, to writer.

“CORK”

This name is as much of a mystery as the word “Suber” and its origin can only be guesswork. In the opinion of the writer it is the broadening of the first syllable of the word “Quercus” and has no bearing upon its usage, composition or lineage. Some dictionaries give other derivations, such as the mutilation of the Spanish “Corcho” or the French “Calk,” and others that it is taken from the Latin Cortex, meaning the outer shell or husk, the external part, but they do not present any convincing argument.

According to “Spanish Dictionary” of Lopes et Bensley; Cortex: “La Parte exterior del Arbol.” Arbol in botany meaning “a tree.”

The meaning of the word “cork” as applied to-day is derived from the Arabic “Kalafa,” to stop the seams of ships; the Latin “Stipo,” to suppress; the French, “Calfeutrer,” to stop. But these do not bear upon the origin of the word “cork,” as in all probability the word was coined independent of these sources, but as we apply the word to a definite act, that of “stopping,” the definition as given above is applicable, although the proper name would be “stopper,” regardless of what material it is made. It is therefore plain that the word “cork” is a Latin phonetic abbreviation, for it appears to be the only logical root for the word.

The cork tree is called “Alcornoque” in Castilian language; Surn in Castalan; Sobreiro, Gallician; Suvi y Sioure in provincialism; Chêne Liège in French; Keonge fernam or only fernam, in Argeline; Kork-baum or Korkeiche in German; and, as before stated, cork in English.

Consul Schenck’s Report.

ORIGIN

The study of its origin leads us to that romantic part of the world bordering the Mediterranean Sea from which we have already received so much in all branches. The cork-producing country practically covering the whole of Portugal sweeping toward the East through the southern districts known as Andalusia and Estremadura, thence northeast, embracing thousands of acres of forests in Catalonia. Spain and Portugal dividing honors among the nations in the annual yield of raw material, with perhaps the advantage leaning slightly to the latter. This being partly due to increased area, no doubt, as the geographical situation is the same but with the irrigation feature slightly in favor of Spain, as through the corkwood country flows the Guadalquivir River in addition to the three which also pass through Portugal, consisting of the Douro, Tagus and Guadiana in the west, and the Ebro in the Gerona district.

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