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

CHAPTER V.
DISCOVERY OF SMITH'S CONSOLIDATED CORK,
AND THE FIRST PURE CORK INSULATION.
19.—Smith's Discovery.—The manufacture of pure cork
<strong>insulation</strong> was begun in 1893, in the United States, under the
original John T. Smith patents, by Messrs. Stone and Duryee.
<strong>Cork</strong> covering was produced first, and then the manufacture
of pure corkboard followed within a very few years.
It is interesting to know that the discovery of the process
of baking cork particles under pressure to bind them together,
which later made pure cork <strong>insulation</strong> possible, was
purely an accident ; and that the process was not thought of
in connection with cork covering and corkboard until Messrs.
Stone and Duryee later applied it to that purpose.
In the "Boat Works" of John T. Smith on lower South
Street, on the East River, in New York, was a large cast-iron
kettle with a fire box under it, the kettle being used to steam
oak framing for row boats that Smith manufactured there for
many years. He also produced boat fenders, life preservers
and ring buoys, in the manner common in those days, by pack-
ing granulated cork in canvas jackets. Girls packed the cork
in these jackets, using tin forms or cylinders to keep the canvas
distended until filled. One of these cylinders became
clogged in the hands of one of Smith's employees and was
laid aside for the moment, but it inadvertently rolled into
the dying embers of the fire box during clean-up late that
evening.
Early the next morning. Smith, owner and fireman, cleaned
out the fire box and found his misplaced utensil. But the
hot ashes had not consumed the cork particles that had
clogged it. The heat had been sufficient merely to bind the
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