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

6 CORK INSULATION
•^ 4.—Home of the Industry,—The ancient Spanish province
of Catalonia, in the northeast or Barcelona area, has long been
recognized as the greatest cork manufacturing district in the
world, the towns of Palamos, Palafrugell, San Feliu de
Guixols, Bisbal, Figueras and others being devoted almost
exclusively to cork and cork products. Domestic cork factories
are scattered throughout the cork areas of Spain and
Portugal, to the extent of i)erhaps a thousand different estab-
FIG. S.—LOADING CORKWOOD FOR EXPORT AT PORT OF PALAMOS,
SPAIN.
lishments, while the remainder of the yield, in the form of
baled corkwood, cork waste, shavings and cork refuse of all
kinds, is exported to Sweden, Denmark, Russia, Austria, Germany,
France, Great Britain and the United States, the last
four named ordinarily absorbing perhaps eighty-five per cent
of the total product of the producing countries, to be worked
into hundreds of different cork articles of trade. ^
\JBecause most people think of Spain as an easy-going
country of medieval ways, with no great wealth or material