Wooden Matches Tillage Machines Telescopic Gangways Mabe Pearls
Today on "how it's made"... Controlled use of fire by humans dates back several hundred thousand years, but the invention of matches is fairly recent. The first known use of matches dates back to the 5th century in northern china. And commercial safety matches were only invented in the early 19th century. You just need to rub a match head against the striking strip on the matchbox to start a fire. Matches come in a variety of matchbox formats. A linerboard paper roll feeds into a machine, passing under a hot iron to reduce the moisture level to 5% or 6%. An automatic paper roll match inner box machine like this one can produce up to 55,000 liners per hour through high-speed die cutting, folding, gluing, and forming. The speed of the process depends on the inner box's size and on the paper's density. The machine shoots out formed inner boxes on a conveyor at a dazzling rate of nearly 1,000 liners per minute. The conveyor then drops the formed liners into storage bins. An automatic sorting machine files the boxes in single rows and arranges them upright on the conveyors, feeding the filling machine. In the meantime, a worker feeds precut inserts to the outer box machine. High-speed die creasing and cutting tools automatically fold the inserts. As the folded liners run through the rollers, the machine forms and glues the box skillets. Each insert has two striking strips. In an industrial mixer, a worker pours gelatin capsules over potassium chlorate. Gelatin serves as a binder for the match head compound. The worker adds hot water before he starts the mixer to dissolve the gelatin, which combines itself with the potassium powder. The worker then adds silica granules, which act as a combustion-controlling agent. He rinses the sides of the mixer with water as the compound mixture reduces. After about 40 minutes, when the mixture is liquid, the worker adds red coloring as well as other compounds that make the match head burn more vigorously. On the splint production line, a worker inspects a batch of splintered aspen wood impregnated with ammonium phosphate to prevent afterglow. The splints run over perforated plates to shake off any residue or waste. Then, they go through a machine which automatically discards broken or undersized splints. The splints now reach the match-dipping line, where the perforated steel match bar runs down an endless chain. The automatic feeder inserts over 2 million splints per hour into the sockets of the match bar. The splints first get a paraffin coating. While a mixer keeps the match head compound liquid, the loaded match bar lowers the splints to dip their heads in. After 5 seconds, the match bar moves back up. And the head compound mixture flows down into the mixing pan to be renewed before another section of the match bar moves in. After dipping, the splints keep rolling down the match bar chain for drying. The chain loops up and down for about 1 hour, leaving the match head compound time to dry slowly and thoroughly. Once the heads are dry, the finished matches are ready for packaging. But first, the filling machine routes the outer and inner matchbox liners onto parallel conveyors. On a high-speed line, the machine can process at least 500 boxes per minute. The finished matches finally come off the match bar. And the filling machine places them into the inside liner. At this point, the machine processes about 200 matches per second. The filling machine pushes the inner liner to the outer skillet. The machine is calibrated to fill each box with a set amount of matches and reject the extra ones. Filled boxes come out on a packaging conveyor. You can find them in small cartons, medium-sized packages, or heavy duty crates. But it takes just a single match to light your fire. A tillage machine is a large tractor-pulled implement which tills the soil. Tillage can refer to deeply plowing the soil after a harvest to break up clumps and remove plant remains. Or it can refer to a shallow turning of soil to prepare the field for planting. This tillage machine is an agricultural multitasker. Its rotary disk blades turn the soil and chop up crop remnants. The harrow behind the blades rakes the soil. Then, the rolling baskets at the rear smooth and level it. The machine can be fitted with various blades designed for different soil conditions and crops. The first machine flattens the curve out of a just-unwound sheet of steel. Then, a press stamps the sheet with a die, cutting out circular blades each 4 1/2 feet in diameter. The steel is a proprietary formula engineered to withstand high abrasion and to be flexible enough not to chip when the blades hit rocks in the soil. After machining a sharp edge, they heat the blades and form them in a die, simultaneously quenching with water. This tempers the steel so that it holds the shape. After cleaning, the blades go through a vat of water-based paint, then a furnace to cure the paint. The paint coat is simply to make the blades look snazzy in the showroom. Once they actually hit the soil, it wears off, which is intended, as bare steel moves through the ground more effectively. Agricultural equipment plants like this one purchase the blades to install on the tillage machines they manufacture. This computer-guided plasma torch cuts the flat components of the machine's frame out of a thick steel sheet. Other parts are cut from steel tubes. Here, workers use a brake press to punch holes for assembly bolts. Once all the frame parts are ready, workers weld them together into frame sections. This is the main section. Here, they're welding a cut-tube part to a pair of plasma-cut parts. Once each frame section is welded, it goes to the paint room, where workers first sandblast the steel to clean off lubricating oil and other residues. They spray on primer and paint and put the frame section in an oven to simultaneously bake on both coats. Given that tillage machine's work outdoors, the paint is designed to protect the steel from sunlight and corrosion. Next, they install hydraulic cylinders on the main frame, attaching them with large bolts secured by washer-and-cotter-pin locking mechanisms. The cylinders, made of a steel that has anticorrosion chemicals baked into it, lift and fold the tillage machine before and after use. Workers pump hydraulic fluid through the cylinders to test them. They bolt the other frame section, called the subframe, to the front of the main frame. Then, to the front of the subframe, they install a hitch. This is what connects the tillage machine to the tractor. Not only does the hitch have to be exceptionally strong to withstand the pull of the tractor, it must also be flexible because the tillage machine runs over bumpy terrain. For the same reason, the main frame has two pivoting axles. Workers install two wheels with tires on each one. These tires are 3 feet in diameter. Tires can be larger or smaller depending on the overall size of the machine and where they're positioned on it. Workers now mount the bracket to which they'll attach the harrow. Then, they install the harrow and the rolling baskets behind it. These and many other components are mounted with sturdy steel u-bolts, plated with zinc for corrosion resistance. One last time, workers hook up the tillage machine to a hydraulic fluid pump for testing. There are two hydraulic circuits, each activated by a lever. One folds or unfolds the machine. The other raises or lowers it. This tillage machine is an agricultural triple threat-- blades to churn up the ground, harrow tines to rake it and heavy steel rolling baskets to level the farming field. Gangways bridge the gap between ship and shore to allow passengers or cargo to be loaded or unloaded. They're also known as gangplanks, hearkening back to the days when these bridges were simple wood planks. Today, telescopic gangways extend and retract automatically. Telescopic gangways can extend their reach or shorten it and change the angle, too. They'll also fold up for compact storage on the ship. These are gangways that can adjust to different circumstances. Each model starts with a computer design, one that takes an engineer up to 800 hours to devise. Once all the details have been worked out, production begins. Using a crane with air clamps, they transfer an aluminum plate to a laser cutting station. The gangway design has been loaded into a computer that guides the tooling to cut out parts according to the plan. In this case, it cuts out a panel that will be made into a framework for one of the gangway planks. Workers then serve up the panel to a computerized brake press. The press bears down on the part to make 90-degree-angle bends. This transforms the flat panel into the plank framework. Next, tools carve thicker aluminum into hinges for raising and lowering the gangway. A drill bores a hole in each hinge for the pin. With another bit, the machine sculpts a countersink profile around the hole. They're now ready to assemble the hinges and other components to the plank framework. A worker positions a reinforcing bracket on the framework. He clamps the bracket to a hollow metal cube to keep it correctly aligned to the framework. He welds the bracket to the framework from the inside and then assembles another bracket to the other side. He slides a metal subfloor into the top grooves of the gangway plank structure. This subfloor will support teakwood decking. He inserts flat bars between the framework and the subfloor to create a space for the installation of the teak. He welds the rails to the plank structure and then adds supports for wheels. The thick welds look a bit unsightly. So a worker grinds the seams smooth. He also abrades the entire metal structure to give it a brushed texture that paint will adhere to. Painting is an intensive process. They prime each gangway plank body three times with sandings in between. They also give the planks three coats of paint. This particular gangway is being custom-made for a luxury yacht. After assembling the teak decking to the planks, a detail person sands the surface. This ensures that the synthetic rubber caulking between the planks is flush to the wood. He caulks the space between the decking and the metal plank structure using more synthetic rubber. With a putty knife, he scrapes off the excess and forms a neat, concave profile. After a 24-hour cure, he removes the tape that's protected the metal frame and wood decking during the caulking process. They're now ready to assemble the planks into a gangway. They move the upside-down planks into position and then drive thick pins into the hinges to attach one plank to the next. He then installs the hydraulic cylinder that powers the folding mechanism. He links it to the hinges with a long, thick pin. He equips one section of the gangway with telescoping hydraulics that allow the gangway to extend and retract. He runs the hoses for the hydraulic fluids through the gangway into the cylinder. And he installs locking valves to ensure the cylinder stays in position when a load is applied. The gangway is now completely assembled. They secure one end in a thick concrete fixture to simulate the weight of the yacht it's been made for. This allows them to fully test the telescoping action and the load-bearing capacity. Seven months in the making, this gangway is now ready to go to any length to link ship to shore. A pearl forms when a foreign object enters the shell of a living mollusk. To protect its soft body from irritation, the animal coats the intruder with layers of iridescent nacre. Most pearls today are cultured pearls. They can be round, oval or, like mabe pearls, semispherical. Pearl cultivation started in 13th century china when people realized they could put foreign objects inside mollusks to encourage nacre growth. It's the mollusk's species and its home waters that determine the pearl's shape and color. Fake pearls have an unnaturally smooth surface. Natural pearls are slightly gritty and very delicate. Even gentle rubbing can remove the precious nacre layer. Mabe pearls are flat-bottomed, semispherical cultured pearls. They grow attached to the inner shell of a pearl oyster when a foreign object is implanted in a shell. In the nursery, oysters start their lives as tiny larvae. When the larvae are big enough, they can be released outside in the pearl culturing farm. The farm is actually a big raft structure that floats on the sea. Oyster larvae naturally attach themselves to natural or man-made structures, at which point they start growing their shell. This net acts as a trap for the developing oysters. Juveniles are moved to underwater cages, where they will grow for several months. The oyster on the right is about 6 months old. In another 6 months, it will be large enough to start growing a pearl, suspended on ropes underwater. To grow a pearl, each oyster must first receive a plastic nucleus. Workers use wedges and speculums to keep the shells open as they work. They gently move the animal to the side, looking for a suitable position for the nucleus implantation. The nucleus size depends on the size of the oyster. Following implantation, the oyster will start secreting nacre over the surface of the nucleus. Workers drill a hole in the oyster's hinge. This does not hurt the animal. They fasten each shell to a rope using stainless steel wire. Each rope holds between three and five oysters. They fasten those ropes to the raft structure. Oysters will spend at least another year underwater, feeding on plankton and growing the pearl. Every 2 or 3 months, they remove the oysters from the water to clean them. Tropical waters are rich in food and teeming with life. So each oyster becomes a microhabitat for smaller plants and animals. These organisms could prevent the oyster shell from opening and closing freely, hampering its feeding. Using a cleaver knife, they eliminate the thick crust of sea moss, barnacles, and other marine organisms. Once the oysters have grown to a suitable size, it's time to harvest the pearls. Using a thin paring knife, she opens the oysters and removes the animals from their shells. Mabe pearls are most often used in certain rings or earrings, where their dome shape is desirable. Using a diamond saw, they cut the shell around the pearl. After cutting, the nucleus will be removed and replaced with a mixture of resin to improve strength and luster. They use a grinding machine to shape the pearl. Then, they polish it to enhance its natural beauty. Jewelers working with pearls arrange them according to size and quality. This artisan is creating a tiara for an international beauty pageant. She uses a magnifying glass to control the quality of the various gemstones and pearls. For other jewelry pieces, they use spherical pearls, such as this south sea pearl. They insert a miniature screw in the hole. That screw is endowed with a proprietary double-lock system which secures the pearl in its setting. The pearl farmers have been growing pearls for three generations. Today, they farm three species of oysters and produce a total of about 25,000 pearls every year. Even though cultured pearls require human intervention, they are all real pearls. Their color, luster and shape may vary slightly. But each pearl is unique and naturally beautiful.