Cork insulation; a complete illustrated textbook on cork insulation ...

CORK INSULATION
Part I—The <strong>Cork</strong> Industry.
CHAPTER I.
THE ORIGIN OF CORK.
1.— Early Uses of <strong>Cork</strong>.—The story of cork is so little
known and shrouded with so much mystery that the world
has never had a <strong>complete</strong> and comprehensive account of iU
The utility and general uses of the "cork of commerce," as
well as its native land, are no longer a part of the mysticism
but its character, composition and chemical construction are
still the subject of research and experimentation.
'The uses of the outer bark of the cork oak tree have been
traced far back into a dim past, but for our purpose it will be
cnousjh to go back no further than the first century of the
Christian era. The elder Pliny wrote al:)()ut the cork oak tree
then, in his work on natural histor}-. and recognized twenty
centuries ago at least four of the principal functions that cork
fills in the world today, which involved a recognition of the
two principal properties of cork bark that make its use of so
much value as a commercial insulating material—its marked
ability to retard the flow of heat and its freedom from capil-
larity. These two properties, in combination, were provided
•by Nature to make this interesting and remarkable material
the foundation, when put through proper manufacturing
I ployment
processes, for the best cold storage and refrigerator <strong>insulation</strong>
yet known to mankincL
** As is often the case with many important discoveries, the
first use of cork probably came through accident ; for its em-
"attached as a buoy to the ropes of ships' anchors
and the drag-nets of hshermen" suggests that a piece of cork
bark found its way to the sea where its unusual buoyancy was
first noted and utilized bv fishermen and sea-faring men as