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Title: The boy's book of trades and the tools used in them

Author: Anonymous

Release date: January 19, 2023 [eBook #69841]

Language: English

Original publication: United Kingdom: George Routledge & Sons, 1866

Credits: Brian Coe, Thiers Halliwell, who created the book cover, which is placed in the public domain and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.)


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOY'S BOOK OF TRADES AND THE TOOLS USED IN THEM ***






                                   THE
                           BOY’S BOOK OF TRADES
                                 AND THE
                           TOOLS USED IN THEM.

                                    BY
               ONE OF THE AUTHORS OF “ENGLAND’S WORKSHOPS.”

                                COMPRISING

                            BRICKMAKER.
                            MASON.
                            BRICKLAYER.
                            PLASTERER, &c.
                            CARPENTER.
                            PAINTER, &c.
                            PLUMBER.
                            MANUFACTURE OF GAS.
                            IRON FOUNDER.
                            BLACKSMITH.
                            BRASSFOUNDER.
                            GILDER.
                            CABINET MAKER.
                            FLOOR-CLOTH DITTO.
                            PAPER STAINER.
                            CALICO PRINTER.
                            TINMAN.
                            FARRIER.
                            NEEDLE MAKER.
                            HOTPRESSER.
                            CUTLER.
                            COTTON MANUFACTURER.
                            TAILOR.
                            TANNER.
                            SHOEMAKER.
                            SADDLER, &c.
                            HATTER.
                            MILLER.
                            BAKER.
                            SUGAR REFINER.
                            DYER AND SCOURER.
                            COPPERSMITH.
                            GUN MAKER.

                                 LONDON:
                        GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS,
                         BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL.
                                  1866.

                                  LONDON
                   R. CLAY, SON, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS,
                            BREAD STREET HILL




PREFACE.


Every human being born into the world will find that happiness mainly
depends upon the work that he does and the manner in which it is done.

Those who imagine that the necessity for labour is only an evil must be
either grossly ignorant or wilfully wicked.

Whoever wastes his life in idleness, either because he need not work in
order to live, or because he will not live to work, will be a wretched
creature, and at the close of a listless existence will regret the loss
of precious gifts and the neglect of great opportunities.

Our daily work, however common or humble it may seem, is our daily duty,
and by doing it well we may even make it a part of our daily worship.

For these reasons the choice of a trade is a most important event in
every boy’s life, and it is no less difficult than important, because
when a boy has just left school he seldom knows much about the operations
of any trade, and cannot be expected to express any preference for
one more than another. Whether this book will be of any use in this
respect, by directing attention to some of the principal industries of
the country in which we live, must after all depend upon the tastes of
each particular reader; but it may at all events claim to be useful in
making known what are the operations necessary to some of our great
manufactures, and in explaining the method of using the tools employed by
those engaged in them.

A volume like the present can scarcely be said to have an Author, since
much of its contents must necessarily be the work of the compiler, who
condenses the valuable material supplied by other writers, and adapts
it to his purpose. It is impossible that any great part of the _matter_
can be original; and in some parts of the following pages the writer has
found it altogether inexpedient to change even the _manner_ of those who
are regarded as the principal authorities on scientific subjects. He
believes, however, that even where he has borrowed, he has borrowed with
some discretion. Whether he has succeeded in explaining and simplifying
the reader will be able to judge.




THE BRICKMAKER.

[Illustration: BRICKFIELD, SHED, KILN, &C.]


It would be very difficult, and perhaps impossible, to discover at
what time in the history of the world the art of brickmaking was first
practised. In the earliest records of the human race the making of bricks
is mentioned; this was part of the labour imposed upon the children of
Israel, when they were in captivity in Egypt, and bricks of excellent
quality are found in some of the most ancient buildings, the remains of
which have been discovered. Though uncivilized nations, and even some
which had made great progress in civilization, but lived in very warm
or exceedingly cold climates, frequently built dwellings of wood, of
wattles or strips of trees and branches covered with clay and lime, and
of rough stone and earth; and though whole tribes lived and still live
under tents, or in mere log huts and wigwams, or lodges made of the skins
of animals, the manufacture of bricks formed of clay, and either burnt
with fire or dried in the sun, is amongst the oldest of all known trades.
In our own day it has arrived at such perfection and the varieties of
bricks and tiles are so great in order to provide for the great diversity
in buildings, that it is one of the most important branches of English
industry.

We learn from the Bible that burnt bricks were used in building the Tower
of Babel, and from early historians, as well as from recent discoveries,
we know that they were also made for the walls of Babylon. The bricks of
the ancient Egyptians were made of clay tempered with water and mixed
with chopped straw, and afterwards dried in the sun, and the labour of
the Israelites was made more severe by their being compelled to find
straw for themselves. In Rome both burnt or kiln-dried bricks and those
dried in the sun were employed, and though at a later date the art of
brickmaking seems to have fallen into disuse, it was revived again in
Italy after some hundreds of years. The trade seems to have been brought
to England by the Romans, and many of the most ancient buildings in
this country are made of very fine brickwork, though, till the reign of
Elizabeth, only large mansions were so built, the common houses being
formed of frame-works of timber filled in with coarse plaster supported
by laths of wood.

There are few more interesting sights than a brick-field in full work
with its great sheds, its horses going slowly round and round in the
mills, grinding the clay which has been dug out of the deep pits; its
great stacks covered with hurdles and screens made of reeds and its
immense kilns, so cleverly and evenly built, where the smoke rises lazily
from the dull fires by which the drying or burning is completed.

[Illustration: Clay Mill.]

The methods of brickmaking differ considerably in various parts of
England, but that which we most commonly see in practice near London
will very well represent them all, and it is this which will now be
described. The earth used for making bricks is found after digging till
the labourers reach the loamy soil lying just above that blue clay which
is known as London clay; and this earth is known as strong clay, mild
clay, and malm, and this earth requires preparation by mixing with them
chalk and the dust of burnt ashes from the dust bins. These burnt ashes
the brickmakers call “breeze.”

The chalk mill and the clay mill are placed close together on large
mounds, high enough to allow the “malm” (which is a mixture of chalk and
clay ground to a thin paste) to run down to the brick earth. The chalk
mill is a round trough where the chalk is ground by heavy wheels fitted
with spikes on their tires or hoops, and turned by one or two horses.
The trough is supplied with water from a pump, and the chalk, as it is
ground, runs off by a wooden gutter into the clay mill, where it is again
stirred and ground till it mixes with the clay; the mixture then runs
through a grating and through other gutters to the brick earth, which has
been placed in heaps to receive it.

[Illustration: Hack Barrow. Barrow.]

When the earth is mixed in this way, it becomes brick-clay, and is taken
in barrows up a sloping board, to the pug mill. The pug mill is a great
tub, the top of which is larger than the bottom, and in the centre of it
there revolves an upright iron shaft fitted with knives. These knives cut
and break the clay as it passes through the mill, and they also force it
downwards till it reaches the bottom, where it passes through a hole on
to a machine called the Cuckhold, which is a sort of table containing a
trough where the clay is cut into lumps ready for the moulder.

[Illustration: Pug Mill.]

[Illustration: Barrow for carrying baked Bricks.]

[Illustration: Kick and Stockboard. Mould. Board for Moulding. Strike.
Brick-mould.]

The moulder who shapes the clay into bricks uses moulding sand,—a
peculiar sort of sand brought from the bed of the river, and spread out
in the sun, where it is turned over and over till it is quite dry. It
prevents the clay from shrinking, gives a harder surface to the bricks,
and prevents them from sticking to the mould, or to each other; it also
gives the London bricks their grey colour. The moulder stands at the
moulding stool, which has a rim at each end to keep the moulding sand
from falling off, and has a stockboard, which forms the bottom of the
brick-mould, and a page, or two iron rods nailed at each end to wooden
rails, used to slide the raw bricks from the moulder to the place from
which the “taking-off boy” takes them to place on the “hack barrow,” by
which they are carried away. The moulder is served with the lumps of
clay by the “clot moulder.” The “brick-mould” is a kind of box without
top or bottom, and the moulder dashes the tempered clay into the mould
with sufficient force to make the clay completely fill it; after which
the superfluous clay is removed from the surface of the mould with the
strike. The brick is then turned out on to a pallet or board, on which it
is wheeled by the boy to the “hack ground,” where the bricks are built up
to dry in low walls called “hacks.” The brick moulds are made of brass
or iron, and often of wood. Sometimes the bricks are dried on a floor
under a shed, but often in the open air, where they are covered with
straw, reed-flats, or canvas and tarpauline screens, to protect them from
wet, frost, or excessive heat. The bricks are afterwards burnt either in
“clamps” or in “kilns.” In clamp burning the bricks are built up close
together, and the bottom ones only are heated with burning breeze or
cinders, the heat spreading to those at the top. A kiln is a sort of
large chamber in which the bricks are loosely stacked with spaces between
them for the heat to pass through, and they are baked by fires placed
either in arched furnaces under the floors of the kiln, or in fire holes
made in the side walls. The kilns are built of various shapes, and one of
the principal arts in the trade of the Brickmaker is to construct them
that the heat may be properly distributed, and the bricks equally and
thoroughly baked.

[Illustration: Shovel. Pick. Reed Flats.]




THE MASON.

[Illustration: MASONS AT WORK.]


Having already given a description of the way in which bricks are made,
we come to the work of the Mason, whose duty it is to prepare the stone
work used in building and for other purposes. In the mason’s trade great
skill is required, as well as some hard manual labour, since he has to
cut the stones for arches, windows, columns, cornices, and porches, into
various shapes; and to fit the separate pieces with perfect accuracy,
that the Builder or the Architect may be able at once to set them in
their proper places. The business of the monumental mason, who erects
pedestals for statues, tombs, and ornamental structures in parks and
gardens, is generally distinct from that of the builder or architectural
mason, although many of the same tools are used in both trades.

The stone used by the mason is of various kinds, and is brought from
different parts of the world; but our own country contains stone of
nearly every sort which can be well employed in ordinary building.
Granite comes principally from Scotland, though a smaller quantity is
brought from Ireland; red and white sandstone is plentiful in Yorkshire,
Lancashire, and Derbyshire, as well as in Scotland and Ireland; a sort of
slate stone is found in Wales; and the most common building stone, which
is called limestone, or free-stone, is brought from several counties in
England, where it is constantly worked. The stone is generally found
under the surface of the earth, and the places from which it is dug are
called quarries; the business of quarrying being to extract from the
ground, or from the sides of rocks, large masses of stone or marble.

When these lie directly under the ground, the earth at the top is
removed, and the stone is afterwards separated into blocks and lifted
out by machinery; but it is sometimes necessary to mine for the stone
by making galleries underground, and leaving pillars to support the
earth above them. In large quarries, the earth at top is first removed,
and the first layer of stone, which is generally of a common sort, is
broken or blasted with gunpowder, and afterwards taken away. The lower
layers of stone are then divided by wedges driven into them, until they
split in the required direction; the blocks are afterwards made of a
regular square, by a tool called a _kevel_, pointed at one end and flat
at the other, and are then lifted by cranes on to low waggons, upon
which they are drawn away. It is the business of the mason to work these
stones, which are to be used in building, into their required shape;
but before the mason receives them the _stone cutter_ hews and cuts the
large blocks roughly into the form in which they are wanted; and when
the block is to form top of a doorway, part of a cornice, or any other
portion of a building where ornament is necessary, the _carver_ executes
these ornaments, and cuts the stone into a pattern of fruit, flowers, or
figures.

[Illustration: Peck or Point. Stone Axe.]

When the stone is valuable it is sent from the quarry to the mason’s
yard, or to the building where it is to be used in large blocks, and
there cut into slabs or thin pieces called “scantlings,” of the required
size, with a stone mason’s saw (_see large cut_). This saw differs from
those used in other trades because it has no teeth. It is a long thin
plate of steel slightly jagged on the bottom edge, and fixed in a frame;
and being drawn backwards and forwards in a horizontal position, cuts
the stone by its own weight. To make this the easier, a heap of sharp
sand is placed on a sloping board over the stone, and water trickling
upon it from a barrel washes it into the cut made by the saw. In large
establishments the sawing of the stone is often effected by steam
machinery. Some of the freestones are so soft as easily to be cut with a
toothed saw, worked backwards and forwards by two persons. The tools used
by the mason are the peck or point for chipping the surface of the stone,
the stone axe for breaking the irregular portions from the block, the
iron mallet and beetle, for breaking pieces from the edge of the slab or
driving in wedges.

[Illustration: Wooden Beetle. Wedge. Iron Mallet.]

[Illustration: Rubber. Mallet. Brush. Chisels.]

The tools used for cutting stone are the mallet and chisels of various
sizes. The mason’s mallet differs from that used by other workmen, being
of a sort of half pear shape, and with a short handle only just long
enough to allow it to be firmly grasped in the hand. The rubber is used
for smoothing the surface of the stone, after it has been worked by the
tools; sand and water are placed on the stone, and the rubber is pushed
backwards and forwards for the purpose of grinding the face of the slab
to a smooth surface; another block of stone is sometimes applied to the
same purpose. In London the tools used to work the faces of the stone
are—the _point_, a very small chisel only about a quarter of an inch
broad at the cutting edge; the inch tool, which is a broader chisel; the
_booster_, broader still; and the _broad tool_, which is three inches and
a half wide: beside these, there are tools of the same kind for working
mouldings and carvings.

[Illustration: Square. Bevel Square. Straight Edge. Trowel. Point.]

Besides these cutting tools, the mason uses a _banker_ or bench, on which
he places his stone for convenience of working, and _straight edges,
squares, and bevels_, for marking the shapes into which the blocks are to
be cut, and seeing that his edges and surfaces are even by trying them as
the work proceeds.

The bevel square is a square the _stock_, or lower part, of which is
moveable, so that it may be set to any angle or level as required.
Sometimes a pattern called a _templet_ is used for cutting a block to any
particular shape, and when the work is moulded, the templet is called a
_mould_. Moulds are commonly made of sheet zinc, carefully cut to the
profile of the mouldings with shears and files.

It often happens that the mason has not only to prepare the stone, but
to set it in its place in the building, and this is properly part of
his work. He then uses the trowel, for applying the composition for
cementing the stones together; lines and pins to show whether his edges
are straight and square, the square and level for a similar purpose; and
various rules for adjusting the stone faces of upright walls.

[Illustration]




THE BRICKLAYER.

[Illustration: THE BRICKLAYER.]


The Bricklayer has so much to do with the erection of buildings that
the Master Bricklayer is generally a Builder; that is, he understands
not only brickwork and the building of walls, but also the other trades
necessary for completing a house, and can superintend the Mason’s,
Carpenters’, and Plumbers’ work.

Of course, the first consideration in building a house is the
preparation of the foundations, which are formed in various ways,
according to the nature of the soil on which they are laid; unless the
ground itself is firm enough to receive the walls, sometimes thick layers
of concrete (a sort of mortar) is used, sometimes layers of planking are
put down, or even cross beams of timber, and in some cases, where the
earth is very loose and damp, timber piles are driven into it on which
to lay the foundation. The foundation once laid, the vaults or cellars
are built either in the ordinary way, or in a series of arches of various
forms; then follow the abutments, the wing-walls, the main-walls, with
iron “Bressumers” for supporting those parts of the walls which are
above large openings like great doors or shop fronts. The partitions, or
interior walls, may be either solid brick or stone, or may be constructed
entirely of timber, or they may be frames of timber filled in with
masonry or brickwork. Then come the floors, the roofs and roof-coverings,
and finally the ceilings and the doors and windows. The materials used
in building are principally timber, stone, slate, bricks, tiles, mortar,
lime, cement, iron, glass, lead, zinc, colours and varnishes. Those with
which the working bricklayer has most to do are bricks, slates, tiles,
stonework, cement, and mortar, for these are principally used in making
walls and roofs, which is the greater part of his trade. The stone and
slate come from the quarries, and we have already seen how bricks are
made. Mortar is made in the following way.

1st. The soft chalky stone known as limestone, is calcined or burnt, by
exposure to strong heat in a lime kiln; the heat drives off a gas which
is contained in it (called carbonic acid gas), and leaves it in a state
in which it is known as quick-lime.

2d. The quick-lime is “slaked,” by pouring water upon it, when it swells
and becomes very hot, afterwards falling into a fine powder.

3d. This powder is mixed into a rather stiff paste, more water is added,
and when a certain quantity of sand is added becomes _mortar_, and may be
used for cementing bricks together.

Concrete is made by mixing gravel, sand, and ground unslaked lime
together with water; it is used for foundations, and filling in apertures
requiring strength and firmness.

Iron is used by the builder in two different states, as cast iron and
wrought iron; the _girders_ for supporting roofs and walls are mostly
cast in moulds (_see Iron Founder_), though both these and other parts of
the ironwork used in building, are frequently of iron wrought by hand.

Lead is used by the mason for securing and coating the iron clamps which
hold the blocks of stone together; it is also used in the plumbers’ work
of a house (_see Plumber_).

Zinc is used in the manufacture of gutters, pipes, and portions of roofs.

[Illustration: Trowel.]

The excavator having dug out the space where the foundation of the house
is to be laid, the work of the bricklayer begins, and his tools are the
_trowel_, to take up and spread the mortar, and cut bricks by a sharp
blow to the requisite length; then there are the _brick axe_ or hammer,
for shaping the bricks to a level; the _tin saw_ for making an incision
on bricks to be cut with the axe; the rubbing stone on which to rub the
bricks smooth in the parts where they have been cut, and the _mortar rake
and shovel_, for mixing the mortar and cement.

[Illustration: Mortar Rake. Crowbar. Shovel. Brick Hammer. Pickaxe.]

The crowbar and pick-axe are the tools used for demolishing old brickwork
or clearing out rubbish; the sieve (_see large cut_) for sifting the lime
of which the mortar is made, and the rammer for hardening the ground to
render the foundation firm. The _raker_ is used for raking out the mortar
from the joints of old brickwork which requires re-pointing, or the
joints refilled with mortar.

To “set out” the work, which means to measure the spaces, and to keep
the lines, curves, and angles, straight and true, the bricklayer uses
the _square_, the _level_, the _plumb-rule_; the square shows whether
the proper angle has been preserved; the plumb-rule is an upright rule,
with a string at one end, to which is attached a leaden ball. If the
work is straight on its perpendicular lines, and the plumb-rule be
applied to it, this leaden ball will hang exactly in the centre, and
swing through a hole in the rule, while, if the work be crooked, it will
swing to one side. The level is a rule on the same principle, but for
testing horizontal lines, such as a cornice on the top of a wall. The
good bricklayer will frequently test his work by these tools, and will
also use a line stretched to two pins, to guide him as he builds up his
courses of bricks.

The bricks and mortar are supplied to him by a labourer, who carries
them in a _hod_. The labourer also makes the mortar, and builds up and
takes down the _scaffolding_ (_see large cut_). The scaffolding, or that
frame of poles and planks erected in front of the building as it is in
progress, is constructed of _standards_, _ledgers_, and _putlogs_.

The standards are poles made of fir trees, from forty to fifty feet long,
and six or seven inches thick at the butt ends, which are firmly fixed in
the ground. When one pole is not long enough, two are lashed together,
the rope lashings being tightened by wedges driven in between the coils
in a peculiar way. The ledgers are horizontal poles placed parallel to
the walls and lashed to the standards; these support the putlogs, or
cross pieces, which are about six feet long, one end of them resting in
the wall, the other on the ledgers. On these putlogs are fastened the
scaffold boards, which are stout boards with pieces of iron hoop placed
round the ends, to keep them from splitting.

[Illustration: Level. Cutting Chisel. Square. Line and Plumb. Hod.]

A bricklayer and his labourer will lay about a thousand bricks, or two
cubic yards of brickwork, in a day.

The tools used for _tiling_, or placing the tiles on a roof, are the
lathing hammer, the iron lathing staff to clinch the nails, the trowel,
which is longer and narrower than that used for brickwork, the _bosse_,
for holding mortar and tiles, with an iron hook to hang it to the laths
or to a ladder, and the _striker_ a piece of lath about ten inches long
for clearing off the superfluous mortar at the feet of the tiles.

[Illustration]




THE PLASTERER AND WHITEWASHER.

[Illustration: WHITEWASHER AND PLASTERER.]


When the walls, or what is called the carcase of the house, have been
built, the roof made, the inner walls and partitions set up, and the
joists and woodwork of the floors laid down, the work of the Plasterer
begins. He covers the brickwork and bare timbers of walls, ceilings, and
partitions with plaster, to prepare them for painting or papering: he
also forms the cornices for ceilings, and the mouldings and decorations,
which are usually made in plaster or cement.

The materials which the Plasterer uses for these purposes are:—1st.
_Coarse stuff_, or a paste made with lime, much in the same way as
common mortar, and afterwards mixed with hair, which is obtained from
the tanner’s yard, after it has been removed from the skins, which are
there made into leather. This hair is raked together, and mixed with the
mortar, with the _hair hook_, and a sort of three pronged rake called the
_drag_.

[Illustration: Hair Hook. Fine Sieve.]

2d. _Fine stuff_ is made from pure lime, slaked with a small quantity of
water, after which enough water is added to bring it to a state in which
it resembles cream; it is then left to settle, the superfluous water is
poured off, and the mixture is left in a tub, till still more of the
_water_ has evaporated, and it is thick enough to use. This stuff is
often used for ceilings, and then a small quantity of white hair is mixed
with it, to help to make it firmer and more binding. For these finer
kinds of plaster it is necessary to use the _fine sieve_, in order to
sift the lime and other ingredients, that only the portion which has been
reduced to powder may be retained.

3d. _Stucco_, which is made by mixing fine stuff with cleaned-washed
sand. Stucco is used for house fronts, or other finishing work, which is
intended to be painted.

4th. _Gauged stuff_ is used for forming cornices, which run round a
ceiling, and for mouldings; it is made by mixing fine stuff with plaster
of Paris, which is a fine white powder easily made into a paste, and
drying very quickly.

These are only the ordinary materials used by the Plasterer for his work,
but there are a great number of cements, which are also applied in the
course of his trade; such as Roman and Portland cements, and mixtures
made and sold for special purposes of decoration, and the manufacture of
ornaments.

These ornaments, such as centre pieces for ceilings, flowers drooping
from cornices, bosses or groups on walls, &c. are first modelled in clay,
and are afterwards cast in plaster of Paris, placed in moulds made of
wax or plaster. In this trade, as in that of the picture frame maker,
ornaments are frequently made of _papier maché_, or the pulp of paper
(literally _smashed paper_), which is a very light, hard, and durable
substance for the purpose. The moulds for cornices are made of sheet
copper, and are fixed in a wooden frame.

[Illustration: Gauging Trowel. Hammer. Salve. Plasterer’s Hawk. Check
Line and Reel.]

The various tools used by the Plasterer are shown in the engravings,
and the manner in which some of them are used may be seen by the large
cut at the commencement of this description of the Plasterer’s trade.
The peculiar _hammer_, with one edge like an axe, is used for breaking
down old plaster, and clearing away the mortar from walls and ceilings
previous to plastering them afresh; the _hawk_ is a flat board with a
handle in the centre, used for holding the plaster or cement, which is
being laid on with the trowel. The _gauging trowel_ is the long narrow
trowel, used for taking up the fine stuff for cornices and mouldings;
these trowels are of various lengths, from three to seven inches. The
_salve_ is a sort of small spade, on which the plasterer’s boy lifts the
mortar or cement, and places it on the _hawk_, which the workman holds in
his hand; as the _salve_ has a long handle, the plaster can be conveyed
to the hawk even when the man is at work on a ladder. The square is
similar to that used by the bricklayer, and shows that the corners of
the work are straight and even; the _compasses_ are used for measuring
distances; the _check line_ for marking out the spaces of the work to
be done, and the _joint rules_ for measuring the parts where different
portions of the work come together, either at the corners, or in making
the mouldings. The _set square_ is also used, for showing that the
surface or the line of the work is straight and even.

[Illustration: Joint Rule. Joint Rule. Compasses. Set Square.]

When the Plasterer has to cover a ceiling or a partition, he commences by
lathing. This is nailing laths over the whole space which is to receive
the plaster. Laths are long narrow strips of either oak or fir wood, of
various thicknesses; the thicker being used for ceilings, where they have
to bear a greater strain than in upright walls.

The next operation is _pricking up_, or placing the first coat of _coarse
stuff_ upon the laths; this is called pricking up, because when the
plaster is laid, its whole surface is pricked and scratched with the end
of a lath, that it may be rough enough for the next coat. The laying
on of this second coat of plaster is called floating, and is performed
in the following way. The surface is surrounded with narrow strips of
plastering, called _screeds_, held fast by lines of nails, and these are
made perfectly level, by means of the plumb rule (_see Builder’s tools_),
and the use of the _hand float_. The spaces within these lines of plaster
work are then filled with coarse stuff, till the whole forms a flat
surface, which is made perfectly level, or “floated” with the _floating
rule_. Other screeds are then formed and filled up in the same way, until
the whole ceiling, or wall, forms one flat surface. The operations are
the same for ceilings and walls, except that the plumb rule is used for
adjusting the level of walls, and the _level_ for that of ceilings.

[Illustration: Square. Modelling Tools. Brush. Floating Rule.]

After the work has been brought to an even surface with the floating
rule, the Plasterer goes over it again with the _hand float_, using a
little soft stuff to make good any deficiencies.

[Illustration: Hand Float.]

When the floating is about half dry, the setting or finishing coat of
fine stuff is laid on, and is first wetted with a _brush_, and then
worked over with a smoothing tool until a fine surface is obtained.

Stucco is laid on with the largest trowel, and worked over with the _hand
float_—being at the same time sprinkled with water—until it becomes hard
and solid; after which it is rubbed over with a dry brush. The water has
the effect of hardening the face of the stucco; which, after several
sprinklings and trowellings, becomes very hard, and as smooth as glass.

[Illustration: Setting Trowels.]

The commonest kind of Plasterer’s work is laying on one coat of stuff:
when this is done on brickwork it is called _rendering_, and when on
laths it is called _laying_. When there is a second coat it is called
_render set_, or _lath-lay and set_: and when it is three-coat work it is
called _render, float, and set_, or, _lath-lay, float, and set_; this is
done in ceilings and partitions with fine stuff mixed with hair; or, when
the walls are to be papered, with fine stuff and sand.

_Rough stucco_ is used for finishing staircases and passages in imitation
of stone. It is mixed with a great deal of coarse sand, and is not
smoothed, the _hand float_ being covered with a piece of felt, so that
when it is applied to the stucco the grit of the sand sticks to it and is
drawn to the surface, giving the plaster the appearance of rough stone.

_Rough casting_ is used for outside walls, and is done by throwing
a layer of gravel, mixed with lime and water, over the second coat
of plaster while it is quite wet. In some counties of England, and
especially near Nottingham, the plasterers use reeds instead of laths;
and even floors are often made by laying down a quantity of coarse stuff
upon a foundation of reeds.

These floors are almost as hard as stone, and possess the good quality of
being almost always fireproof.

[Illustration]




THE CARPENTER.

[Illustration: THE CARPENTER’S SHOP.]


An account of the tools and implements used for working in wood would
scarcely be complete without some remarks upon wood itself, and you can
have no better information on this subject than that which has been
written by a gentleman[1] who is thoroughly acquainted with the different
kinds of timber, and with all the materials used in building.

    [1] Mr. E. DOBSON, Assoc. Inst. C. E.

If we examine a transverse section of the stem of a tree, we perceive
it to consist of three distinct parts; the _bark_, the _wood_, and the
_pith_. The wood appears disposed in rings round the pith, the outer
rings being softer, and containing more sap, than those immediately round
the pith, which form what is called the _heart-wood_.

These rings are also traversed by rays extending from the centre of the
stem to the bark, called _medullary rays_.

The whole structure of a tree consists of minute vessels and cells, the
former conveying the sap through the wood in its ascent, and through
the bark to the leaves in its descent; and the latter performing the
functions of secretion and nutrition during the life of the tree. The
solid parts of a tree consist almost entirely of the fibrous parts
composing the sides of the vessels and cells.

By numerous experiments it has been ascertained that the sap begins to
ascend in the spring of the year, through the minute vessels in the wood,
and descends through the bark to the leaves, and, after passing through
them, is deposited in an altered state between the bark and the last
year’s wood, forming a new layer of bark and sap-wood, the old bark being
pushed forward.

As the annual layers increase in number, the sap-wood ceases to perform
its original functions; the fluid parts are evaporated or absorbed by the
new wood, and, the sides of the vessels being pressed together by the
growth of the latter, the sap-wood becomes heart-wood or perfect wood,
and until this change takes place it is unfit for the purposes of the
builder.

The vessels in each layer of wood are largest on the side nearest the
centre of the stem, and smallest at the outside. This arises from the
first being formed in the spring, when vegetation is most active. The
oblong cells which surround the vessels are filled with fluids in the
early growth; but, as the tree increases in size, these become evaporated
and absorbed; and the cells become partly filled with depositions of
woody matter and indurated secretions, depending on the nature of the
soil, and affecting the quality of the timber. Thus Honduras mahogany
is full of black specks, while the Spanish is full of minute white
particles, giving the wood the appearance of having been rubbed over with
chalk.

The best time for felling trees is either in mid-winter, when the sap has
ceased to flow, or in midsummer, when the sap is temporarily expended in
the production of leaves. An excellent plan is, to bark the timber in the
spring and fell it in winter, by which means the sap-wood is dried up and
hardened; but as the bark of most trees is valueless, the oak tree (whose
bark is used in tanning) is almost the only one that will pay for being
thus treated.

The seasoning of timber consists in the extraction or evaporation of the
fluid parts, which are liable to decomposition on the cessation of the
growth of the tree. This is usually effected by steeping the green timber
in water, to dilute and wash out the sap as much as possible, and then
drying it thoroughly by exposure to the air in an airy situation. The
time required to season timber thoroughly in this manner will of course
much depend on the sizes of the pieces to be seasoned; but for general
purposes of carpentry, two years is the least that can be allowed, and,
in seasoning timber for the use of the Joiner, a much longer time is
usually required.

Properly seasoned timber, placed in a dry situation with a free
circulation of air round it, is very durable, and has been known to last
for several hundred years without apparent deterioration. This is not,
however, the case when exposed to moisture, which is always more or less
prejudicial to its durability.

When timber is constantly under water, the action of the water dissolves
a portion of its substance, which is made apparent by its becoming
covered with a coat of slime. If it be exposed to alternations of dryness
and moisture, as in the case of piles in tidal waters, the dissolved
parts being continually removed by evaporation and the action of the
water, new surfaces are exposed, and the wood rapidly decays.

Where timber is exposed to heat and moisture, the albumen or gelatinous
matter in the sap-wood speedily putrefies and decomposes, causing what
is called rot. The rot in timber is commonly divided into two kinds,
the _wet_ and the _dry_, but the chief difference between them is, that
where the timber is exposed to the air, the gaseous products are freely
evaporated; whilst, in a confined situation, they combine in a new
form, viz. the dry-rot fungus, which, deriving its nourishment from the
decaying timber, often grows to a length of many feet, spreading in every
direction, and insinuating its delicate fibres even through the joints of
brick walls.

In addition to the sources of decay above mentioned, timber placed in
sea water is very liable to be completely destroyed by the perforations
of the worm, unless protected by copper sheathing, the expense of which
causes it to be seldom used for this purpose.

In modern houses the labours of the Builder, the Mason, and the
Plasterer, would be of little use unless they were accompanied by that of
the Carpenter, since a very large proportion of every building consists
of the woodwork of which its interior structure is greatly composed.

As it is one of the most useful, so the Carpenter’s may be considered
the most ancient of trades, for nearly all other handicrafts require the
preparation or manufacture of the materials, but the Carpenter originally
found his materials in the forest, and at once set to work to construct
various articles from the trunks and stems of the trees best suited
for the purpose. We can only imagine one trade older than that of the
Carpenter, and that is the Tool Maker, and as the earliest tools, or at
all events some portion of them, were probably made of hard wood, the
Tool Maker may in some sense be said to have been a Carpenter also.

[Illustration: Axe. Adze.]

[Illustration: Saw. Compasses. Plumb Rule. Hammer. Square. Mallet.]

Strictly speaking, the business of the Carpenter is only with the larger
portions of buildings and the rough timber frameworks which support them,
and his principal tools are the _axe_ and the _adze_, for chopping and
roughly smoothing timbers; the _saw_, for sawing beams and planks; the
_chisel_, for making mortis holes for joining beams together, and for
cutting and paring wood; the _chalk line_, a line rubbed with chalk, and
used to make a straight line upon a board or beam, to mark the direction
in which it is to be sawn; the _plumb rule_, already described amongst
the Builder’s tools; the _level_; the _square_; the _compasses_; all of
which have been described in previous trades; the _hammer_; the _mallet_,
and various sorts of nails. The other tools represented in the engravings
belong more properly to the _Joiner_, but as the trades of the Carpenter
and the Joiner are almost always united, we will speak of all the tools
as belonging to one business. Carpenter’s work, then, consists of the
framing roofs, partitions, and floors, in making the various joints used
in beams, ties, rafters, and joists for supporting floors, and the proper
way of supporting buildings by posts and girders. The Carpenter requires
to be strong and active, that he may properly handle the heavy timbers
on which he has to work; he should have a knowledge of the science of
mechanics, that he may be able to provide for the strains and thrusts to
which the different parts of his work are exposed, and supply the proper
means of resisting them; and he should also be able to understand how
to make what are called “_working drawings_,” that he may “set out,” or
properly draw a plan of the work he has to do, from the designs of the
Architect.

The Carpenter being concerned with the portions of a building which are
made of timber, you will be better able to understand his trade by a
short description of what these are; and we will then speak a little
of the _Joiner_, whose trade is generally confounded with that of the
Carpenter.

First: Partitions, or inner divisions of a building, may be either of
brick, stone, or wood; and, in the latter case, they are generally
“framed,” or supported in a more solid framework, which should form a
portion of the main building, that is, of the outer wall; and should
be quite independent of the floors, which should not support, but be
supported by them.

Second: Flooring is formed by joists or strong beams of timber reaching
from wall to wall, where they rest upon other beams, called wall plates,
which are built into the walls themselves. The floor boards are nailed
over the upper edges of the joists, and the lower edges receive the
laths and plaster, which form the ceilings of the rooms beneath. Large
buildings are sometimes fitted with double framed floors, with two sets
of joists, and building joists resting on girders; and in superior
houses, the _wall plates_ are often supported by “corbels,” or, portions
of the timber projecting from the inside of the wall, which prevents the
necessity of opening the wall to admit the ends of the joists.

Third: Roofing consists of the roof covering, which is laid upon rafters
or slender beams, which are supported by stronger horizontal beams called
_purlins_; and these, again, rest on upright _trusses_, or strong frames
of timber, placed on the walls at regular distances from each other.
Upon the strength and firmness of these trusses, and the skill of the
carpenter’s work, depends the entire safety of the roof.

Large roofs are supported by cross beams, called _collars_, or _tie
beams_; and they are further strengthened by an upright pillar in the
centre, called a _King post_, from which slanting beams, called “struts,”
support the rafters.

We have now only spoken of common roofs, but there are many roofs of open
timber-work in churches and other public buildings, which are wonderful
specimens of the skill of the Carpenter and the Joiner. One of these,
perhaps the grandest as well as the most ancient, is that of Westminster
Hall; but there is one also in the Great Hall, at Hampton Court Palace;
and others may be seen in Churches and Halls in various parts of England.

The Joiner, as his name implies, frames and joins together the wooden
finishings and decorations of buildings, such as floors, staircases,
skirtings, door and window frames, sashes, or, the sliding parts of
windows that contain the glass, shutters, doors, chimney-pieces, &c. This
work requires much greater nicety and finish than that of the Carpenter,
and is brought to a smooth surface with the plane wherever it is likely
to be seen, while the carpenter’s work is left rough as it comes from the
saw.

The principal cutting tools used by the Joiner are, saws, planes, and
chisels.

The _saws_ are of various sizes, and are called rippers, half rippers,
hand saws, and panel saws, according to their shape, and the number of
teeth to each inch.

[Illustration: Chisel. Gouge. Screw Driver. Screw. Tenon Saw. Narrow Saw.]

The _tenon saw_ is used for cutting tenons, or flat slices from the ends
of beams, that other beams cut in the same way may rest upon them and yet
leave a flat surface. The thick back of the tenon saw keeps the blade
from “buckling,” or twisting; as it would be very likely to do while
sawing in a horizontal direction.

The _dove-tail saw_ is similar to the tenon saw, but smaller, and with
a brass back instead of an iron one. It is used for dove-tailing, or
cutting notches in a board or beam, into which projections in another
board or beam are fitted, in order that the two may be held together, as
we see the sides of a box are fitted to the back and front. Then there is
the _compass saw_, for circular work, and the _keyhole_, or _narrow saw_,
for cutting out holes.

The planes are used for bringing the edges and sides of beams, boards, or
other wooden fitting, to a perfectly smooth surface: the first of these,
used upon the rough wood, is called the _jack plane_; another is called
the _trying_ or _trueing plane_; and a third, the _smoothing plane_.

[Illustration: Trying Plane. Smoothing Plane. 2-foot Rule. Glue Pot.]

The plane, as you will see, is a solid piece of hard smooth wood, with a
hole in the centre containing the cutting tool, or, as it is called, the
plane iron, which is firmly fixed with a wedge, so that its sharp cutting
edge only slightly projects at the bottom.

The wood which is to be smoothed is fixed on the joiner’s bench by means
of a screwed board, called a shooting board, and, by means of the handle
at the top, the plane is made to slide swiftly along its surface, so that
the edge of the tool cuts off a thin shaving.

There are various sorts of planes besides these, used for cutting various
parts of the work, but they are most of them of similar construction.

Chisels are either for paring the wood, and are used with the hand; or
are intended to cut into the thickness of the wood, and are then struck
with a large wooden hammer, called the _mallet_. The _gouge_ is a curved
chisel, used for cutting mouldings or making round edges.

[Illustration: Clout Nail. Cut Clasp Nail. Brad. Spike Nail. Bradawl.
Chisel. Gimlet.]

The boring tools are the bradawl, the gimlet, and the stock and bit.

The _bradawl_ is a small sharp wire fixed in a handle, and used for
making holes to receive large nails, which, if driven in at once by
the _hammer_, would split the wood. Nails are of various kinds, the
difference in which may be seen in the engraving. The best kinds of
nails are made from thin bar iron, pointed, cut off to the proper length,
and the head formed by stamping.

The _gimlet_ is a hollow blade with a screw at the end, and fixed to a
cross handle. It is used for boring a larger and rougher hole than the
bradawl, for receiving _screws_, which are screwed into their place by
the _screw driver_, a sort of chisel, the edge or point of which enters
the notch in the head of the screw, so that the workman may turn it round.

The _bit_ is a tool not unlike a large bradawl, which fits into a stock
or handle. The bits are of various sizes, and are used for boring large
holes.

[Illustration: Centre Bit.]

The _brace and bit_, or _centre bit_, is a tool with a centre and two
sharp points, one on each side; it is placed in a bow-shaped stock with a
round loose end. This loose end the workman holds firmly, while he places
the point of the tool against the wood required to be bored; he then
turns the bow briskly round, and the two points revolving rapidly, cut
out a circular piece.

The _pincers_ are used for removing nails from wood, and it is easy to
see how they are applied. There are some other tools which belong to the
trade of the Joiner, but they are used less frequently, and a description
of them will be given when we have to say something of the trade of the
Cabinet Maker, whose work resembles the finer part of that which the
Joiner does at his own workshop.

The bench (_see large cut_) is the great table of thick planks supported
on a timber frame, at which the Joiner works; it is furnished with a
“side-board” perforated with holes to receive a pin, against which one
end of the wood on which he is operating rests, the other being firmly
fixed in the bench screw.

[Illustration: Pincers.]

[Illustration]




THE HOUSE PAINTER AND GLAZIER.

[Illustration: HOUSE-PAINTING AND GLAZING.]


Although we have spoken of the trade of the Plumber separately, and have
placed the Painter and Glazier together, it generally happens that the
three trades are carried on by the same persons, and you will often have
noticed “Plumber, Painter, and Glazier” over the fronts of shops, where
leaden pipes and taps, casements, and squares of coloured glass, and
specimens of “graining,” or imitations of various woods in painting, are
placed for show in the windows, to represent the different businesses
carried on.

It is the duty of the House Painter to cover with his colours such
portions of the Joiner’s, Smith’s, or Plasterer’s work as require to be
protected from the action of the air, which would cause them to rust or
decay. He has also to choose the colours which will be best suited for
decorating walls and cornices, and generally to apply the proper shades
for all the ornaments of the house, and this part of the business, which
is called “decorative painting,” requires a great degree of skill and
taste in the workman, who may properly be called an artist.

The materials used by the Painter are principally white lead, linseed
oil, spirits of turpentine, “dryers,” and putty. White lead, which forms
the basis of almost all the colours used in house painting, is prepared
by exposing strips of lead to the action of acid; but the Painter buys it
ready made, in the form of small cakes, or lumps. This white lead is used
in all the under coats of paint, and generally makes the body of most of
the colours which are afterwards applied. Unfortunately, while it is in
the half-fluid state, when it is used by Painters, it is very poisonous
and unwholesome, and many workmen suffer severely in their health from
its use; but it will be found that this is often caused by their own
carelessness in working, and by the want of personal cleanliness. The
Painter should not only thoroughly wash his hands before every meal, but
as soon as his work is done should entirely change his clothes, and wash
hands and face thoroughly, or even take a bath. Beside this, he should
wear, over his working clothes, a coarse linen frock or blouse, which
will protect him from the spots of paint, and may be frequently washed.

Linseed oil and spirits of turpentine are used for mixing and thinning
the colours; linseed oil is obtained from the seeds of the flax plant,
which are heated, beaten, and pressed by machinery, until the greater
part of the oil is extracted; the seeds crushed into cakes are then used
as food for cattle. Nut oil, or the oil pressed from various kinds of
nuts, such as walnuts, hazel and beech nuts, is also frequently used for
mixing colours where they are likely to be exposed to the weather, but
linseed oil is cheaper and is most generally adapted to the purpose.

Oil of turpentine, which the Painter calls “turps,” is the oil obtained
by distilling crude turpentine; and is used by the House Painter to make
his colours work more smoothly and freely in the brush, to cause them to
dry more quickly, and to take away that shiny unpleasant glare that would
otherwise be seen on the surface of paint mixed with linseed oil alone.

It is necessary, too, to take some means to make the linseed oil dry more
rapidly than it would in its raw state; or the paint would remain moist
and greasy upon the walls for a very long time. For this purpose the
oil is boiled, and is then known as “boiled oil,” this is bought ready
prepared, the Painter having by him preparations of lead or vitriol,
called “dryers,” which he mixes with his colours, after they are made, in
order to increase the rapidity with which they set upon the places where
they are applied.

The Painter has only a few tools, and these are very simple; they consist
principally of the grinding stone, or _slab_ and _muller_, for grinding
his colours; _earthen pots_ for holding the paints; _cans_ for oil and
turps; a few tin pots, or open cans and kettles, for colour to be applied
to outside places or walls where he has to work on ladders; a _palette
knife_, for spreading the white lead on the stone, or removing the paint
to the palette, for fine work, or to the paint pot; and _brushes_ of
different sizes.

[Illustration: Slab and Muller. Paint Pot. Palette Knife. Oil Can. Paint
Pot. Paint Kettle.]

The various colours, which are mostly made from earths and minerals, are
purchased by the Painter in powder or small dry lumps, and have to be
brought to a fine state, and made quite free from grit, before they can
be used.

The slab, or grindstone, is generally of marble or porphyry, and must
have a perfectly smooth surface; and the muller is a large oval or
egg-shaped pebble, with one end broken off, and the surface made as
smooth as that of the slab. A small quantity of the colour which requires
grinding is placed on the stone, and moistened with a little oil; and
the muller is then worked over it, by a circular movement, until it is
gradually driven to the edge of the stone. The colour is then removed by
the spatula, or palette knife, and placed in the paint pot.

[Illustration: Paint Brushes.]

In this state, however, the colour is too thick to use, and of course
requires to be thinned by adding the oil until it is sufficiently fluid.

In painting woodwork, the first business is called “knotting,” that
is, removing the turpentine from the knots, which would otherwise ooze
and spoil the paint. They are first covered with fresh slaked lime,
which dries up and burns out the turpentine; this is afterwards scraped
off, and the knots painted with a mixture of red and white lead mixed
with glue size, and afterwards with white lead and linseed oil. When
dry, they must be rubbed smooth with a piece of pumice stone. The next
operation is to put on the “priming,” which is the first coat of paint,
composed of red and white lead and linseed oil. The nail-holes, and other
imperfections, are then stopped up with putty (a mixture of linseed oil
and whiting, made into a paste), applied with the _stopping knife_; and
then the other coats of paint are laid on; three coats being generally
considered sufficient; and the last being of the required colour.

[Illustration: Stopping Knife.]

The brushes used by the Painter, are either round or flat, the latter
being used in varnishing or graining; they are made of hog’s bristles.
The smaller kinds of brushes are called _tools_ or _fitches_, and are
used for small surfaces, such as ornaments and mouldings round panels,
when the colour is generally taken from a _palette_—a round slab of wood,
with a hole through which the thumb of the left hand passes in order to
hold it. The brushes must never be allowed to get dry, but when not in
use must be kept in water: it is always best to keep a brush for each
colour. Another part of the Painter’s business which requires more skill,
is graining and marbling; or the imitation in colours of the marks and
grains of various kinds of wood, and the veins and spots in marbles. This
is of course a part of the trade which requires a knowledge of the thing
to be imitated, and great care and taste in doing it well.

Graining is generally done with “distemper colour,” that is a kind of
paint in which whiting and size are used instead of white lead and oil,
for the basis of the colour; but the colours depend on the sort of grain
to be imitated, and they are applied in various ways and with different
sorts of brushes, some of the colour being occasionally removed with a
piece of wash leather, in order to give the appearance of the light marks
seen in the “heart” of the wood. The appearance of the “grain” of the
wood is effected by the _graining comb_, a comb with short thick straight
teeth, which is drawn along the paint in a wavy line.

[Illustration: Graining Comb. Painter’s Brush.]

Marbles are imitated in oil if it is outside work and exposed to the
weather, but for inside work distemper colour is frequently used.

Occasionally walls are coloured in distemper, and it then frequently
happens that a pattern or some ornamental design is painted in the
centres of the panels, or round the mouldings. This is a part of the
Painter’s trade which requires much skill, and a knowledge of artistic
drawing and design.

Varnishing is an operation requiring great care to perform it properly,
since it is necessary not only to choose the right kind of varnish, but
also to apply it to the surface of the paint with a light but firm hand.
Varnishes are made of gums or resins melted, spirits of wine, oil of
turpentine, or strong white drying oil. The hard varnishes dry rapidly,
and are made of the harder kinds of gums, such as copal, mastic, &c., and
the soft of Canada balsam, elemi, turpentine, &c. The most useful for the
House Painter are those of copal, linseed oil, and turpentine.

The brushes used in varnishing are generally flat, so as to enable the
workman to lay an even surface on the work. Varnishes are usually kept
in wide-mouthed bottles; from which they are poured into little tin pans
with a false bottom above the real bottom, the space between the two
being filled with sand. The use of this is that when the pan is placed
over the fire, the sand becomes heated, and the varnish is kept a long
time from becoming chilled.

[Illustration: THE GLAZIER.]

[Illustration: Glazing Knife. Hacking Knife. Chisel Knife. Clicker’s
Knife.]

The trade of the Glazier, though now very important, was unknown in
this country till the eleventh century, and even long afterwards the
use of glass for windows was extremely rare; pieces of horn, and oiled
paper, supplying its place in almost every building except palaces and
churches. As we have here to do with the Glazier, and not with the
manufacturer of glass, we need say little about the method of making the
materials used; so that it will suffice to know that the “crown glass,”
mostly sold for windows of houses, is composed principally of white sand,
pearlash, and saltpetre. This glass the Glazier purchases in sheets of a
circular form, each of which is called a _table_, since the mode in which
it is made renders such a shape necessary; and the first thing he has to
learn, is how to cut out square pieces of the proper size without wasting
much of the round edge. The glass when cut is fixed either into lead work
or sashes; the former of these is the oldest description of glazing; and
in the common kind the leaden frames are soldered together, so as to
form squares or diamonds; the sides of the grooves in which the glass
is placed being soft enough to bend back to receive the panes, and then
bend back again to hold them firmly. In wooden sashes, such as are now
commonly used, the space or frame for each pane of glass is “rebated,”
that is, it has outside a small groove all round to receive the pane, and
a ledge against which it rests. In this “rebate” each square of glass is
placed, and then firmly bedded and fastened smoothly with a rim of putty
filling up the groove.

[Illustration: Rule. Square. 2-foot Rule. Tilter.]

The Glazier uses a _hacking knife_ for cutting out old putty from broken
squares; and the _stopping knife_, or _glazing knife_, for laying and
smoothing the putty.

For setting glass into lead work, the _setting knife_, or _chisel knife_,
and the broad-bladed knife is used.

As much of the Glazier’s work is done outside the house, he is sometimes
compelled to use a board which is fastened with screws, and projects from
the window so that he may sit astride on the outside. No one should ever
attempt this where the sash can be easily taken out and the work done
inside.

[Illustration: Diamond. Pincers.]

The rest of the Glazier’s tools are a _square_, and a _straight edge
rule_ for cutting against, a _two-foot rule_, and compasses for
measuring; _pincers_ for breaking off the edges of glass that have been
partially cut through; and the _diamond_, which is used for cutting, and
is his principal tool. This is made of a small unpolished diamond fixed
in lead, and fastened to a handle of hard wood.




THE PLUMBER.

[Illustration: Casting Lead.]


In trades connected with building, the work of the Plumber is of so much
importance that it must come next to that of the Bricklayer, and the
Carpenter. At one time the Plumber (who takes his name from the Latin
word for _lead_[2]) was principally employed in making leaden roofs of
churches or large public buildings and in forming casements for windows;
window frames being then made of strips of lead soldered or riveted
together and holding the little diamond-shaped panes of glass between
their edges. In those days all the water used in the house was carried
from the well or from the conduit in the main street, or was brought in
casks set upon wheels from the nearest running stream: while rain-water
for washing was collected in tubs or vats as it ran off the roofs. Not
much more than a century ago the poets wrote of the misery of the streets
of London on a wet night, when there were no waste pipes to carry off the
rain from the overcharged gutters on the tiles, and nobody could venture
out of doors without being half drowned by the sudden discharge of a
shower bath from some overhanging gable. Then, as there was no proper
system of pipes for carrying off the wet, there was very little drainage
except by means of open gutters, and the bye-ways, as well as some of the
principal thoroughfares and large houses, were extremely unhealthy.

    [2] Plumbum.

We are not quite perfect even yet in these respects, and there are
still neighbourhoods in London where a few Plumbers might be able to
make vast improvements; but we are a great deal better off than our
great grandfathers were. The Plumbers do not make quite so many leaden
casements as they made in the olden time, but they are well employed in
constructing roofs; carrying water into houses by means of leaden pipes;
making cisterns to contain a good supply of it, and providing other
pipes and gutters for conveying all the dirty water and drainage into
the sewers that are under the roadway, where it runs quite away from the
streets, and (in London at least) goes into the sea from near the mouth
of the Thames at Erith.

[Illustration: Ladle. Grate. Soldering Iron.]

Now as the Plumber has to do a great deal of his work in roofs and other
places where he is liable to fall, he should be clear-headed, and able to
go up a ladder or look over a ledge at a height from the ground without
being afraid, and this is all the more necessary because he has to handle
tools, and sometimes to pour melted solder out of a hot _iron ladle_
while he is at his work on these places. For the purpose of melting
the solder he has to carry his _fire grate and melting pot_ with him
to some place near where he is at work, since unless the solder can be
used rapidly it cools, and will not make a sound joint. The rest of the
Plumber’s tools are the _pouring stick_ for applying the melted solder
in the places where it is required, the _soldering iron_ which is made
red-hot, and passed over the soldered joints to smooth them and make them
all firm and sound; the _chisel_, _shave hooks_, _drawing knife_, and
_chipping knife_, for cutting the lead and scraping it on the surface,
or at the edges that are to be fastened together; the _hammers_ and
_mallets_ for beating the lead into shape and flattening the ridges, the
_bossing mallet_ and dresser for bringing the sheet of lead to a proper
shape, and forming it over the ridge of a roof, the _chased wedge_, the
screw-driver, the _dunring_ and the _turnpin_ for various uses in making
roofs, laying down leaden pipes and fixing taps, and the _sucker hook_
used in repairing or fixing pumps when the part of the pump called the
sucker requires to be rectified.

[Illustration: Pouring Stick. Chipping Knife. Dunring. Drawing Knife.
Chased Wedge. Shave Hook. Turnpin. Shave Hook.]

There are other tools beside these, such as planes for making the surface
of the lead smooth and even, gouges and centre-bits for circular openings
in the lead to receive nails or clamps, measuring rules and compasses,
and pads of carpet or cloth to hold under a pipe when it is being
soldered, that the solder may be pressed round the joint before it cools,
and without its dropping on the ground.

[Illustration: Mallet. Hammer.]

Plumbers now buy their sheet lead as well as their leaden pipe at the
warehouses, but those in a large way of business formerly cast the lead
themselves. For this purpose they used a casting table, which is a great
wooden bench about six yards long and two yards wide, made of smooth
planks, and with a raised wooden frame round the edge. On this table the
Plumber spreads a layer of finely-sifted sand, which was made level by
a strike—a flat piece of wood with two handles—drawn from end to end of
the table; after this the surface was made still more smooth by a planer,
which was a flat plate of copper fastened to a handle.

[Illustration: Sucker Hook. Screwdriver. Dresser. Bossing Mallet. Chisel.]

A trough called the pan ran along the whole length of the table, and into
this the melted lead was poured from the melting pot. There were two ways
of making the sheet lead: one of them was to tilt the trough up, and
pour out the lead on to the table, two men immediately passing a wooden
strike over it so as to spread it evenly over the whole surface. In this
case the thickness of the sheet of lead depended on the distance between
the edge of the “strike” and the surface of the sand. Another way was
to have a narrow opening all along the bottom of the trough, the trough
itself moving from end to end of the table as the lead flowed out. When
this method was used the thickness of the sheet depended on the size of
the opening, and the rapidity with which the trough was moved along the
table. Neither of these methods are now used, the lead being rolled into
sheets by machinery.

Water-pipes are made by lead being cast in moulds with a steel rod
passing through their middles, according to the size required. The lead
is poured into the space between the rod and the mould. After it is
cool the rod is drawn out by machinery, and the mould which is made in
halves is opened and the pipe taken out. The pipe is then much thicker
and shorter than is required for use, but it is afterwards drawn between
powerful iron rollers with grooves cut in their surfaces, an iron rod
being again placed inside it. As these grooves gradually decrease in
size, and the pipe is drawn through several, it is very considerably
lengthened, and at the same time diminished, in thickness, by the time
the operation is finished. Another method of making lead pipes is by the
use of the _forcing pump_, which pumps the melted metal out of the boiler
into a mould containing a “mandril,” or pipe of the required size. Pipes
made in this way do not require to be rolled.

[Illustration: Forcing Pump.]

The work which the Plumber is called upon to do on the roofs of houses
requires experience before it can be properly performed. The foundation
of the roof which is to be covered with lead is made either of boards or
plaster, so that the surface may be even, and if it be of boards they
must be thick and well seasoned to prevent their warping. The foundation
slopes a little in order to carry off the rain towards one end. When the
roof is so large that it needs two widths of lead, there are three ways
of joining the edges of the lead together: one is by fastening to the
roof long slips of wood (flat at bottom and round at top) at the places
where the lead will be joined. Over these strips the edge of the first
sheet of lead is folded and hammered down quite close, then the edge of
the second sheet is folded and hammered over that, so that water cannot
get between them. This is called “rolling.”

Another method is to bring the two edges up just as though they were
to be sewn together, then to fold them tightly one over the other, and
hammer them down: this is called “overlapping,” but it is not so good as
rolling for keeping out the rain.

The third way is to _solder_ the edges together: the solder, which is in
constant use by the Plumber, being a metal made by mixing lead and tin
together. These two metals when mixed adhere very strongly to the lead
that they are meant to join, and the surface to which they are applied
is made hot enough to unite with the solder by means of the soldering
iron, while very often a little resin, borax, or tallow is placed on the
surface of the lead to cause it to combine more rapidly with the molten
metal.

Besides the fixing of roofs the Plumber makes leaden cisterns, fixes
rain-water gutters, and waste pipes, and arranges taps and drains; and
in some of these operations he will use zinc instead of lead. Not the
least important part of his business, however, is the construction and
arrangement of pumps, and for this purpose it is necessary that he
should study mechanics, and those branches of science which refer to the
properties of water, and to the laws which govern the air and other
fluids. He is always the best workman who goes to his business with a
knowledge of the natural laws and scientific facts connected with it, and
a very little study will save a world of blundering; during which the
ignorant man will remain a labourer, because it takes him half a lifetime
to learn his business.

[Illustration]




THE GASFITTER.

[Illustration: GASFITTERS AT WORK.]


As there are now few large houses which are not lighted by gas, the
trade of the Gasfitter is one of considerable importance; and though the
materials used are generally bought ready made from the Brassfounders,
the glass-works, the Ironfounders, or the lead warehouse, considerable
skill is required, as well as some taste in properly adapting the
chandeliers and burners, and skilfully adjusting the tubes and pipes
so that they may easily be repaired, or any escape of gas quickly
detected. The various tools used by the Gasfitter are simple enough, but
careful practice is necessary for their proper use; and, as any flaw or
imperfection in the work may lead to very dangerous consequences, all the
operations should be thoroughly tested, and every joint and fitting in
the various parts made sound and strong.

Before the gas is taken into a house, or as it is called in the trade
“laid on” in the house, it is of course necessary to obtain the
permission of the Company to whom the works where the gas is made belong,
and to agree to pay for the quantity that is burnt, which is charged by
the thousand cubic feet, and varies in price according to the cost of the
coal from which it is made, and the difficulty of conveying this coal to
the works.

[Illustration: Spade. Crowbar. Rammer.]

The first operation is to take up the roadway in front of the house, in
order to connect the pipe which is to convey the gas to the meter with
that which conducts it from the works to the different streets of the
neighbourhood. For this purpose the _spade_ and _crowbar_ are necessary,
while sometimes the pickaxe also has to be used; and the _rammer_ serves
to beat the earth down more closely after the pipe is laid.

[Illustration: Brick Bit. Brick Auger.]

The pipe which is joined to the larger pipe, or _main_, is generally of
iron, and is made with a screw and socket, that it may not be easily
displaced by the pressure of the roadway or footpath, and this, passing
into the basement of the house, supplies the gas to the _meter_. The
meter is a mechanical contrivance, which is so constructed that the
quantity of gas passing through it is registered by a plate something
like a clock face, with a hand to point to the figures which represent
the number of cubic feet consumed. There are different kinds of meters,
and the construction of them varies very considerably, but they all
answer this purpose: so that when the inspector visits the house once a
quarter he may directly see what quantity is to be charged for. The pipe
leading from the meter is fitted with a strong tap, by turning which, all
the gas may be shut off from the tubes that convey it to the different
burners in the house, and from this pipe the smaller pipes (made of a
sort of solder or of lead) are taken to the various rooms. In order to
carry the tubes through a wall, it is necessary to use the _brick bit_
and the _brick auger_ for boring a hole to receive it, while to support
it against a wall or along the top of a ceiling the Gasfitter uses
_wall hooks_, the _hammer_ and the _tongs_ for holding and bending the
pipe to its proper direction. In kitchens and basement rooms the pipe is
generally carried from the meter up the wall and along the ceiling to the
place where the burner is to be fixed: but in upper rooms the pipe is
taken up the house wall, and carried under the flooring of the room above
to the centre of the middle joist, where a hole is bored quite through
the ceiling of the room below. For this purpose the _twisted auger_ is
generally used; and for the preliminary work of taking up the floor and
cutting a groove in the joist to receive the pipe, that it may not be
injured by the pressure of the boards above, the _saw_ and the _hammer_
are required.

[Illustration: Wall Hooks. Nuts. Grease Pot. Hammer.]

[Illustration: Twisted Auger. Saw. Blowpipe. Tongs.]

[Illustration: Waxed Rushes. Rasp.]

Of course one length of pipe is not sufficient to go to any great
distance, and a joint has frequently to be made, the solder used for
this purpose being so easily melted and so readily combining with the
pipe itself, which is of almost the same material, that the flame from
prepared _tow_ blown to an intense heat by the _blow pipe_ is sufficient
for the purpose. The rasp is used for filing the surface at the ends of
the pipes where they are to be joined, and the _waxed rushes_ to try the
joints in order to see that there is no escape of gas through some small
hole. When the pipes are all laid and brought to their proper positions
the fittings are fixed. Those which descend from the centres of ceilings
are generally called chandeliers, and consist of a tube of metal fastened
to the gas pipe, the end of which coming through the ceiling is furnished
with an iron screw to fit the end of the tube. This tube is placed within
a larger tube, from the bottom of which a still smaller one passes within
the first. The gas therefore descends the tube from the ceiling, and
enters the smallest tube, which communicates with the _burners_ that
spring from the largest. The larger tube is intended to receive water,
in which the end of the first tube rests, so that the gas is prevented
from escaping, while by a nice adjustment of weights running over pulleys
attached to the larger, the burners can be raised or lowered, as one tube
slides within the other (_see large cut_). The _taps_ are placed at the
burners to turn on or turn off the gas as it is required, and in order
to fix and screw these, as well as to fasten joints in the fittings by
means of _screw nuts_, the _pliers_ and the _wrench_ are used.

[Illustration: Wrench. Tow. Tap. Rimmer. Clamps. Pliers. Drill Stock.]

The _clamps_ are a sort of vice with grooved holes, for holding the taps
and metal joints firmly while they are filed or otherwise prepared; the
_drill stock_ is used for boring small pipes in order to make a branch to
some other direction, and the _drill brace_ is intended for boring the
main pipes, under which the large hooks are placed while a stock and bit
attached to the upper screw makes the hole; the ordinary _braces_ are
fitted to a _ratchet_ or cog wheel at one end, and are also used for
making incisions by being worked backwards and forwards.

[Illustration: Drill Brace. Braces. Stocks and Dies.]

The several kinds of _burners_ are pierced or cut in such a way as to
make the flame from the gas of different shapes, such as _fish tail_,
_cock spur_, _star_, or _argand_, the names of which tell pretty well
in what shape they appear. Small rooms are sometimes fitted with
“telescopes” instead of chandeliers, the telescope being one tube sliding
within another, and the space carefully filled with a properly adjusted
cork or some other flexible and impervious substance. Bedrooms, and
apartments where light is required at the walls or chimney pieces, are
furnished with brackets, which either simply project from the wall, or
are made with an arm moving on a ball and socket joint. The manufacture
of the various portions of the apparatus used in gas fitting will be
mostly found described under the trade of the Brassfounder.

[Illustration]




MANUFACTURE OF GAS.

[Illustration: GASOMETERS.]


Very few of the readers of this book will remember the appearance
presented by London streets before the introduction of gas; when all
the thoroughfares were darker than even the commonest streets are now,
and the only light emanated either from the shop windows or from dim
oil lamps, which the rain or the wind would frequently put out, even
when they did not burn out of themselves for want of being trimmed and
replenished. A century ago these oil lamps were quite insufficient
to light even the main streets, and people who walked out at night
generally hired a “link boy” to light them as they went, with a great
flambeau of hemp and pitch, which smoked and smelt insufferably. The
nobility and gentlefolks who rode in carriages were also attended by
footmen with flambeaux of a better sort, and outside the doors of some
of the oldest houses in London there may still be seen the great iron
extinguishers attached to the railings, where the torch-bearers put out
their lights till it was time to escort their masters and mistresses
home. The poet Gay, who wrote the celebrated fables, describes the link
boys, and gives them rather a bad character for so often being connected
with the bands of thieves and footpads which infested London streets, and
robbed people with impunity in the dark. He says:—

    “Though thou art tempted by the link man’s call,
    Yet trust him not along the lonely wall;
    In the midway he’ll quench the flaming brand,
    And share the booty with the pilfering band.
    Still keep the public streets, where oily rays,
    Shot from the crystal lamp, o’erspread thy ways.”

Long before this, however, the inflammable nature of the vapour which
streamed from burning coal had been observed by scientific men, and it
was thought by many people that some method might be invented for making
this gas useful for the purpose of lighting streets or houses. It had
also been observed that the air suddenly escaping from the shafts of coal
mines was often highly inflammable, and some experiments were made in the
distillation of coal as early as 1726. In 1765 Lord Lonsdale proposed to
the magistrates of Whitehaven to convey the gas from the neighbouring
mines through pipes for lighting the town.

A number of eminent men afterwards made experiments with gas, but no
decided practical result followed until a Mr. Murdock, of Cornwall,
began to manufacture gas for lighting his house and offices at Redruth.
In 1798 the same gentleman used gas for lighting the Soho Foundry, where
four years afterwards a public exhibition of the new invention was made
by means of an illumination to celebrate the proclamation of peace.

In 1803 a gentleman named Winsor first publicly showed at the Lyceum
Theatre, in London, a system of illumination by gas, which was the
commencement of our present method of lighting our streets and houses;
and after great difficulties and various experiments, a company was
formed for the purpose of carrying out the undertaking of superseding the
old oil lamps and making use of the new invention. The premises of the
company and their factory were situated in Pall Mall, where the Carlton
Club now stands, and the lights first appeared from the corner of St.
James’s Street to the Haymarket, while several jets were placed in front
of Carlton House, the residence of the Prince Regent, afterwards George
the Fourth.

By slow degrees, and by the assistance of Mr. Clegg, an eminent engineer,
the manufacture of gas improved, and in 1814, when the allied sovereigns
visited this country, and a general illumination was ordered, a
magnificent pagoda in St. James’s Park was erected for the exhibition of
the new light. The following year Guildhall was fitted with gas burners;
and, although it had been predicted that the new invention would _ruin
the navy_ by superseding the use of the oil brought by the whalers, and
though some people declared that it was only a scheme for blowing up
London, the success of these experiments led to its rapid adoption in
most of the large towns of Europe.

It will now be necessary to say something of coal, of which more than
400,000 tons are used every year for the manufacture of gas in London
alone.

The name coal was originally given to any substance used for fuel, and
the use of mineral coal, or, as it was formerly termed, _sea-coal_, from
the fact of its being brought by sea, has not prevailed for longer than
200 years. Coal is found in this country in extensive deposits called
coal-fields, the most important of which are:—1. Those of the great
northern district, including the coal-fields north of the river Trent.
2. Those of the central district, including the Leicester, Warwick,
Stafford, and Shropshire coal-fields. 3. Those of the western districts
in North Wales, South Wales, and Gloucester. The coal occurs in a
number of layers, or beds, termed _seams_, and these are separated from
each other by layers of slatey clay, called _shale_, and coarse, hard
sandstone, known as _grit_.

The seams of coal are mostly comparatively thin, but varying from a few
inches to six or eight feet in thickness, and underneath the layers
is usually found a bed of mountain limestone extending beyond the
coal-field, and rising to the surface of the ground around it.

The first process for finding coal is to bore with iron tools a
perpendicular hole in the ground; then if coal is discovered, a shaft,
or pit, from ten to fifteen feet in diameter, is sunk, and lined with
brick, cast iron, or wood, to prevent the admission of water and the
falling in of the sides. When the shaft reaches a seam of coal, passages
are made, twelve to fourteen feet wide, and varying in height with the
coal; from these proceed smaller ones, which are again crossed by large
ones, enormous blocks of coal being left to support the earth above. As
the mine becomes larger, a second shaft is sunk at some distance from
the first, in order that air may be supplied to the mine, and that the
gas that escapes from the coal may be carried away. A current of air is
caused by burning a large fire in one shaft, and the draught is directed
to the part of the mine where it is required, by doors, which close up
some of the passages and leave others open.

There are several varieties of coal found in this country. The most
important are: the common, or bituminous coal, which soils the fingers on
handling; the cannel, or candle coal, which burns with a bright flame,
but does not soil; the anthracite, or culm coal, which burns without
flame, does not form cinder when half consumed, and is most useful for
furnaces, in consequence of its intense heat and the absence of smoke.
Although often classed amongst the minerals, coal is evidently of
vegetable origin; many sorts of it being distinctly fibrous, and showing
the grain of the wood from which it is composed. Upon examination with
the microscope, coal shows vegetable remains; and these are frequently
so perfect that they prove its formation from such plants as ferns and
fir-trees, of a kind somewhat different from those which now exist.

The value of coal depends entirely upon its inflammable and combustible
properties. It is used as the source of artificial warmth in our
dwellings, and our manufactures are mainly dependent on it. Without coal
there would scarcely be any working in iron, copper, lead, or other
metals, as in populous countries the supply of wood is soon exhausted.
Our potteries and our glass works are also carried on by its use, and
the power of steam which moves all our great engines and machines is
dependent on coal for its existence.

Great Britain produces more than one-half the coal that is consumed in
the world, and about 180,000 persons are employed in obtaining it in our
collieries.

The first process in the manufacture of gas is to subject the coal to a
great heat, by which it is _carbonised_, or burnt until only the cinder,
or coke, remains after the gas has flown off. This is done by placing
the coal in retorts of fire-clay or iron, which are previously heated.
These retorts, which occupy a building called the _retort house_, having
been charged with coal, are perfectly closed, and the door _luted_, or
stopped, with a sort of cement, so that the gas can only escape up the
_ascension pipe_, the coke being left in the retort.

[Illustration: Retort House.]

The gas from the coal then passes through the ascension pipe by what is
called the _dip pipe_, into a main, a large horizontal tube extending
along the length of the furnaces. This main is about half filled with
water or tar, in which the ends of the dip pipes are immersed, so
that as the gas runs in, it ascends through the liquid into the space
above, but cannot flow back again into the dip pipes. In this way it
is all collected in the upper part of the main pipe, and is ready for
purification.

Where double retorts are used, each end is worked with at least three
stokers, and an extra man for preparing the lids of the mouth-pieces.
Others are required for extinguishing the coke, wheeling the coal into
the retort house, clinkering furnaces, and attending to fires. Three
stokers, assisted by a man to extinguish the coke, will perform all the
work of taking off the lids, raking out the coke, extinguishing and
wheeling it away from a bench of seven retorts, in twelve or thirteen
minutes; they will then put the proper charge for each retort in the
_scoop_, deliver its contents, and be ready for charging another bench
in a further space of seven minutes, while a fourth workman will in the
meantime have put on the lids, so that the whole work of discharging and
charging the seven retorts will occupy barely twenty minutes.

This extreme dexterity is of course only acquired by long practice, and
it must be admitted the labour is very severe; but this is moderated by
the time the men have for repose between the charges. The first process
in discharging or drawing is for one or two of the men to relieve the
screws of the mouth-pieces of the retorts about to be discharged, by
giving three or four rapid turns; another man instantly gives a knock to
each of the cross bars to disengage them from the ears of the lid, and
at the same time strikes the lid a blow with a piece of iron or hammer,
in order to break the luting, and a light is immediately applied to
prevent explosion, which would be likely to crack the retort if of clay.
For want of this precaution, many lamentable accidents have happened
through the gas exploding when combined with atmospheric air. The men
then lift off the cross bar and screw of each retort, placing them on the
ground, and then each seizes hold of a lid in both hands, lifting it by
the projecting ears, and placing it aside to cool, ready for luting for
another charge.

[Illustration: Fender. Wheelbarrow. Bus.]

Three of the stokers then take up their _iron rakes_, which are simply
rods of ¾-inch iron, about 12 feet long, having a handle at one end; the
other end being turned at right angles is flat, about 6 inches long, 2
inches wide, and ½-inch thick. These are inserted in the retort, and the
red-hot coke drawn to the mouth, whence it drops into the coke vault,
where there is a man ready to extinguish by throwing water on it; or when
there is no vault the coke drops into _iron barrows_ placed ready to
receive it, and wheeled rapidly away when the charge is withdrawn. If the
coke were not immediately extinguished it would smoulder, and the surface
become covered with earthy ash, and detract from its appearance and value.

[Illustration: Rake. Clinkering Spud. Scoop. Fire Shovel. Key. Auger.]

Formerly, in charging retorts, the operation being comparatively very
protracted, there was a considerable loss of gas, in addition to the time
and extra fatigue to the men. In order to remedy these inconveniences,
a method has been contrived for depositing the whole charge in the
retort at once; for this purpose an _iron scoop_ is used, this being a
semi-cylinder of sheet iron, from 8 to 10 feet long and 10 or 12 inches
diameter, with a cross handle at the end to assist in lifting and turning
it round to empty the coals in the retort.

[Illustration: Shovel. Clinking Bat.]

The charge of coal is placed in the scoop while it rests on the ground,
having a bent rod underneath for the purpose of lifting it: one man takes
hold of the cross handle, and two others lift the other end by the bent
rod, and introduce it into the mouth of the retort. The scoop with its
contents is then pushed forward to the further end, turned completely
over, and immediately withdrawn, leaving the coal in the retort, which
is raked into a layer of uniform thickness, when the lid, previously
luted and ready, is placed in its position and screwed up as quickly as
possible. The operation of charging a retort with the scoop does not
occupy more than thirty or forty seconds, so that very little escape of
gas can take place. The _shovel_ is used for lifting the coal to the
scoop, the _clinking bat_ for breaking or removing the coke in the vault,
the spud for a similar purpose.

The gas in the hydraulic main is of course very impure, having undergone
no alteration since it came from the coal in the retort. It contains
a quantity of tar and ammoniacal liquor in vapour, and these have
to be separated from it and this can be effected by what is called
condensation, the instrument used being known as a _condenser_. There
are two or three forms of condensers in use, but a common one, which is
represented in the engraving, is called the horizontal condenser, and
is a rectangular box or chest formed of cast iron plates, put together
with flanges, and perfectly tight joints. Its interior is provided with a
series of iron trays, containing each about two inches in depth of water,
and so arranged that the gas, entering at the bottom of the chest, passes
in succession over the surface of the water in each tray, and traversing
the whole length of trough ten or twelve times, passes off at the upper
side. In the mean time a continuous stream of water enters at the top,
and in its descent absorbs a portion of the ammonia, at the same time
cooling and condensing the vapours in combination with the gas.

[Illustration: Condensers.]

Horizontal condensers are sometimes composed of a series of pipes placed
in a horizontal position, and immersed in water.

[Illustration: Wet Purifier.]

The other form of condenser, which is very generally employed, consists
of a series of vertical pipes, connected in pairs by semicircular bends
at top, and attached to a cast-iron box or chest at bottom. This chest
has a series of divisions, the ends of which are sealed by liquid
placed therein, so that the gas in its passage has to pass through the
whole series of pipes. The pipes by their contact with the atmosphere
radiate the heat acquired from the gas in its passage, and it being in
consequence cooled, deposits the vapours as liquid in the form of tar,
and water saturated with ammonia, generally called ammoniacal liquor.
This condenser is sometimes used with an application of cold water on its
exterior, in order to increase the cooling effect.

The other part of the purification is by a chemical process, in which a
solution of lime is used to remove other impurities in the gas. This is
called _wet lime purification_, or when the lime is only slackened (or
moistened) it is called _dry lime purification_, and the process takes
the sulphuretted hydrogen, the carbonic acid, and other matters from the
gas before it is stored for use.

[Illustration: Dry Purifier.]

The wet lime purifier consists of a cast-iron cylinder entirely closed
at top and bottom, except where the inlet and outlet pipes join it, and
where an opening is required for charging it with lime-water, which same
opening is also used for drawing off the charge. To the inside of the
cover of this outer cylinder is bolted an inlet cylinder usually made
of wrought-iron plate. This inlet cylinder is open at the lower part,
and reaches to within a foot from the bottom of the outer cylinder, but
has bolted to its lower flange a wide ring or dash plate of sheet iron,
the outer diameter being only 8 or 9 inches less than that of the outer
cylinder, so that a space of about 4 or 5 inches is left between the
outside of the ring and the interior of the large cylinder.

The gas passes down through the inlet cylinder, and by its pressure
forces its way up through the fluid lime, the surface of which is 8 or 9
inches above the dash plate.

The wet lime purifiers are variously worked; when four are used, two
vessels are employed at one time, and when the lime in the first is
incapable of absorbing the impurity, that purifier is put out of action,
and the second and third are worked, and so on in succession.

When quick lime is slackened, reduced to powder, and slightly moistened
with water, chemically this is called the hydrate of lime, and is often
employed to absorb the sulphuretted hydrogen and carbonic acid from the
gas. The process is termed dry lime purification.

Dry lime purifiers are generally rectangular cast-iron vessels, varying
from 3 feet to 30 feet square, and from 3 feet to 4 feet 6 inches deep.
Sometimes in small works they are made circular; this, however, is not
very frequent, and is done for convenience or economy in construction.
Each purifier contains a series of perforated shelves, trays, or sieves,
supported by suitable bearers of wrought or cast iron, the ends of which
are attached to “snuggs” cast on the purifier. In large apparatus there
are also pillars placed at intermediate distances to carry the weight of
the sieves and purifying material.

The upper part of the purifier is surrounded by a cistern or reservoir
of from 6 inches to 24 inches deep, and from 3 inches to 6 inches wide,
which is often cast with the purifier, and forms part of it, or at other
times is attached thereto by bolts and cement, and is for the purpose
of containing water to seal the cover. The cover of the purifier is of
boiler plate or cast iron, the latter being preferable on account of its
durability; but the increased weight is an impediment to its adoption.
The rim or border of the cover is rather deeper than the cistern into
which it is placed, and is effectually sealed by the water, so preventing
the gas escaping from that point.

Often the purifier is divided into two compartments, so that the gas
ascends through a set of sieves on the one side, and descends through
another set on the other side, answering the purpose of two sets of
apparatus. In all establishments, however small they may be, two distinct
purifiers at least are necessary, to enable the impure lime to be removed
from the one whilst the gas is being purified by the other.

The next subject for consideration is that of the _gasholders_, or
vessels in which the gas is stored ready for delivery into the mains,
which distribute it throughout the districts to be lighted. These
vessels were originally termed _gasometers_, which name is sometimes
even now applied to them; but as they have nothing whatever to do with
the measurement of gas, but are mere vessels of capacity or stores, the
simple name of gasholder is more expressive and appropriate.

The gasholder is composed of two distinct parts, one of which contains
water, and is called the tank, the other is the vessel which contains
the gas, being really the gasholder. On the Continent the former is very
generally termed the “cistern,” and the latter the “bell.”

The tank is a large cylindrical vessel, constructed usually, for the sake
of economy, of brickwork or masonry, but when the ground is marshy, or
when water exists abundantly a short distance below the surface of the
earth, which would prevent the construction in masonry at a moderate
price, these tanks are made in cast-iron, and, indeed, in small works,
are often of wrought iron. In the interior of the tank there are two
vertical pipes for the admission and egress of the gas, called the inlet
and outlet pipes; the former being in direct communication with the
manufacturing apparatus, the latter with the mains which convey the gas
to the town. These pipes rise a few inches above the level of the top
of the tank, so that the water cannot overflow into them. A series of
columns, generally of cast-iron, but sometimes of wood, or brick piers,
are placed at equal distances around the tank for the purpose of guiding
the holder.

The holder is a cylindrical vessel closed at the top, which is termed the
roof, and open at the bottom, made of sheet iron, varying in thickness
according to the dimensions of the apparatus, the smaller sizes being
constructed of thin material in order to avoid an excess of pressure,
whilst those of very large dimensions are made of stout plates for the
purpose of obtaining sufficient pressure to expel the gas to the burners.
The holder is somewhat less in diameter, but of the same depth as the
tank in which it is placed, sometimes being partially suspended by chains
which pass over grooved pulleys and counter-balance weights, but more
frequently only guided by rollers attached around its lower and upper
edges, which work against suitable guides in the tank and on the columns
in such a manner as to permit the holder to ascend and descend in the
tank with the greatest freedom.

The action of the gasholder is very simple. The tank being filled with
water, and the holder immersed therein ready for use, there is a space
between the surface of the water and the roof of the holder; the gas
enters by the inlet pipe into this space, and with the force it acquires
in being expelled from the coal, pressing on the surface of the water and
underneath the roof, and over the whole area of both, causes the holder
to rise. Thus, by its own force or pressure, the gas provides room for
itself, and in proportion to the quantity entering so does the holder
rise out of the water. For instance, a holder having 100 feet area, or
about 11 feet 4 inches diameter, in rising 10 feet will receive 1,000
cubic feet of gas, and in descending, the same quantity would be expelled.

Gasholders, though often suspended, are never entirely counter-balanced,
having always sufficient weight to give the necessary pressure for
forcing the gas through the mains and smaller pipes to the burners, all
through the neighbourhood which is supplied from it. The gasholder should
be so constructed that, when it is full or at its greatest height, its
lower edge will be so far under water as to prevent the gas from escaping.

The water in the tank serves three purposes; it is the means of
resistance for the gas to lift the holder, it prevents the gas escaping
or mixing with the atmosphere; and it is the means of expelling or
forcing out the gas as the holder descends.




THE IRONFOUNDER.

[Illustration: FOUNDRY.]


Having already described the various operations of the trades employed in
building and fitting a house, we will say something of the manufacture
of those cast iron columns, girders, gratings, balconies, pipes, gutters,
air traps, coal plates, stoves, and other articles which are so necessary
to the Builder before his work can be completed. All these, as well as a
great variety of other goods made in black or bronze iron, such as gates,
bridges, pieces of furniture (like umbrella stands), iron taps, and even
pots and frying pans, are made at the _Iron Foundry_.

Iron is a metal of a bluish gray colour; but in its pure state it looks
almost white when polished, and has a brilliant lustre, while when it
is broken the broken portion looks dull and fibrous. It is the hardest
of all the malleable and ductile metals, and the most tenacious of all
metals, an iron wire of ⅟₃₆th of an inch in diameter bearing a weight of
60 pounds.

In the pure state it requires the strongest heat of what is called a wind
furnace to melt it.

Iron may be called the most precious of all metals; it is certainly the
most beneficial to man, and its uses are innumerable; indeed, there is
not a branch of human industry that could well afford to dispense with
its aid and services; nearly all the tools, implements, instruments, and
engines used by man are wholly or partly made of it, and we could better
afford to give up all the other metals than to part with this, which is
the most useful.

Iron is used in two different states, as _cast iron_ and _wrought iron_,
the differences between them depending on the proportion of carbon
combined with the metal, cast iron containing the most and wrought iron
the least.

For the production of wrought iron in the ordinary way, two distinct sets
of processes are required; first the extraction of the metal from the
“ore” that is brought up from the mine, which metal is cast iron; and
secondly the conversion of this cast iron into malleable or bar iron, by
remelting, _puddling_, and _forging_. Bar iron is turned into steel by
placing it in contact with charcoal in a peculiar kind of furnace.

When the ore is taken from the mine it is first burnt or calcined, and
then removed to a blast furnace to be smelted. These blast furnaces are
generally built of brick, and look like small towers. The ore is mixed
with limestone, which causes it to melt more easily, and the fire is
lighted with pit coal or coke. The melted metal sinks to the bottom of
the furnace in consequence of its weight, while the limestone and dross
float on the top, and are allowed to run off when they cool into a mass
of what is called “slag.”

The melted metal is run off from the bottom of the furnace, either into
moulds for some sort of castings, or into a large furrow made in a bed of
sand. This large furrow has several smaller furrows on each side of it,
and has received the name of the “sow;” the smaller furrows being called
“pigs;”—and the iron when it is formed in this shape to be afterwards
made malleable is called “pig iron.”

The pig iron is taken to other and smaller furnaces called puddling
furnaces, the bottoms of which are lined with clay mixed with the
slag just mentioned, and forming a substance which the puddlers call
“bull-dog,” though it would be difficult to discover why it received that
name.

About four hundred weight of the pigs is placed in the furnace, and as
it melts the puddler stands at the furnace mouth with a long _iron rod_
bent at the end, and stirs it about, until it comes to resemble several
great balls of iron paste. These balls are removed, and fall into iron
trucks pushed along a small railway by boys, who wheel them at once to
the “shingling hammer,” an immensely powerful hammer worked by steam, and
this beats the iron into small square bars called “blooms.”

The blooms are next carried to the rolling mill, which is a pair of great
rollers cut into grooves of various sizes, and between these grooves the
bars are squeezed, as the rollers turn round, until they become much
longer and narrower, when they are known as “forged bars.”

Some of the rolling mills, however, are plain cylinders without grooves,
and when a slab of white-hot iron is placed between these it comes out
from the pressure in a great broad sheet of metal.

These operations require great bodily strength as well as considerable
skill on the part of the workmen, who are obliged to seize the heated
metal with long tongs, and to catch it in the same way as it comes out
from the mill.

[Illustration: Casting Ladle.]

The iron which is intended for castings is melted in a “cupola furnace,”
so called on account of the dome-like shape in which it is built, which
has something to do with the more perfect heating of the metal. When the
iron is completely melted so that it will run freely, the lower portion
of the furnace is opened, and the white-hot stream is received in the
_casting ladle_, or, where it has to be carried for some distance, and
the casting is large, in great iron pails carried in a sort of frame by
two men. From the casting ladle it is at once poured into the _mould_.

[Illustration: Mould. Small Casting Ladle.]

The mould is a sort of iron box filled with a peculiar sort of sand, into
which a wooden pattern of the intended casting is pressed, and the sand
firmly rammed down and made solid. There are, in fact, two boxes of sand,
each of which is impressed with one half of the thickness of the required
casting, so that when they are brought together, and firmly fastened with
the pins, as shown in the picture, the patterns which have been taken
out have left a half of the impression in each box, each corresponding
exactly to the other. A hole in the box receives the melted metal, for
which a channel has been left in the sand, that it may freely run into
the hollows left by the pattern, and completely fill them; then, when
it has sufficiently cooled, the casting is removed, and when the rough
edges have been removed, and the irregularities trimmed off, it is ready
for use, and may be fitted to its other parts, which have perhaps been
separately cast, as in the case of garden seats, fenders, chandeliers,
umbrella stands, or ornamental girders and columns.

[Illustration: Furnace Iron. Brush. Trowel. Bellows. Foot Rule. Level.
Shovel. Spatera. Hammer. Mould Weight. Rammer.]

We have only described solid castings, but as ornamental iron work is
generally made hollow, this has to be cast in rather a different way,
though the only difference is that what are called “cores” are used.
These cores are in fact solid metal patterns made a little smaller than
the hollow left by the real pattern, and allowed to remain in the mould.
The melted iron then flows between the surface of the core and the
surface of the mould, and the casting is hollow, so that when the core is
removed the metal is only the thickness of the space left between the two
surfaces. You will see what is meant by placing a small teacup inside a
larger one, and then pouring water between them.

The tools used by the Ironfounder are not very numerous: the casting
ladles and mould have already been mentioned; the uses of the _shovel_
and the _mould weight_, the _rammer_, and the _furnace iron_ need no
description.

The designers, and pattern makers, and the mould maker have the most
important duties, and the latter will have to use a small _trowel_ and
a _spatera_ for arranging his sand and loam, a _level_ that it may be
perfectly true, and a _brush_ and a _pair of bellows_ for removing any
particles of grit from the surface of the channels where the pattern has
been impressed.

Almost all irons are improved by admixture with others, and, therefore,
when superior castings are required they should not be run direct from
the smelting furnace, but the metal should be remelted in a cupola
furnace, which gives the opportunity of suiting the quality of the iron
to its intended use. Thus, for delicate ornamental work, a soft and very
fluid iron will be required, whilst for girders and castings exposed to
cross strain the metal will require to be harder and more tenacious. For
bed-plates and castings which have merely to sustain a compressing force,
the chief point to be attended to is the hardness of the metal.

Castings should be allowed to remain in the sand until cool, as the
quality of the metal is greatly injured by the rapid and irregular
cooling which takes place from exposure to air if removed from the
moulds in a red hot state, which is sometimes done in small foundries to
economise room.

[Illustration]




THE BLACKSMITH.

[Illustration: FORGE.]


In the building and fitting of the house a large portion of the iron work
will have to be furnished by the Smith, and as we have already given some
description of iron founding, it will be necessary to say something about
the Blacksmith, or the worker in iron or black metal, whose business is
different from that of the whitesmith, which has to do more particularly
with white or yellow metal.

The way in which malleable iron, that is, iron fit for the hammer, is
produced has been mentioned in connexion with the trade of the iron
founder, who in fact supplies the Blacksmith with the raw material. It
is not very easy to tell you much about the way in which the Blacksmith
makes the great variety of articles which his trade furnishes, for there
is no business the success of which depends more upon personal skill. As
the trade of the Smith, or at all events the worker in metal, is one of
the most ancient, and existed in times when there were few tools,—as, in
fact, it is the Smith who has to make tools,—so at the present day, he
has to depend chiefly on his own ability in the use of the hammer and a
few other simple instruments to fashion the articles that come out of his
workshop.

It is he who supplies the various articles of wrought iron work used in
a building; as pileshoes, straps, screw bolts, dog-irons, chimney-bars,
gratings, and wrought-iron railings and balustrades for staircases.
Wrought iron was formerly much used for many purposes for which cast iron
is now generally employed; the improvements made in casting during the
present century having caused a great alteration in this respect. It is
not only for building purposes that the Blacksmith is employed, however,
since there is scarcely anything constructed of iron in which his aid
is not required, from important portions of machinery to the rough
horse-shoes which have to be finished and fitted by the farrier. In the
forge, where the great bellows suspended to the ceiling make the furnace
roar, and the sparks fly, the clinking of hammers is heard all day long.

[Illustration: Hammer. Sledge Hammer. Set Hammers. Vice. Anvil. Tongs.
File.]

The _anvil_, on which the iron is beaten into shape, the bench, fitted
with a _vice_ for holding such portions of the work as require the
_file_, the _tongs_, with which the red hot metal is held, the _sledge
hammer_, and the _set hammers_, are the principal tools.

[Illustration: Callipers. Compasses. Heading Tools. Gauges. Square.
Bottom Tool.]

The sledge hammer is used for beating the metal until it is tempered and
easily formed into shape, and it is in the tempering of the metal by
beating that the great skill of the Smith is often displayed. The set
hammers are used for setting out the work, and have heads of different
shapes, according to the form which the metal is required to assume.
The various _gauges_ are placed upon the anvil for the similar purpose
of shaping the work, and the _callipers_, _compasses_, and _square_,
measuring and adjusting it. The _heading tools_ consist of cutting,
punching, and stamping instruments, and are probably so called, because
they are furnished with heads to receive the blows of the heavy hammer,
by which they are forced into the hot metal on the anvil.

[Illustration: Double Hooks. Punch. Slice. Fire Irons.]

These heading tools are held, not by handles of their own, which would
break off with the concussion of the hammer, but by a sort of withe of
birch, or some other tree fastened loosely round them at their heads,
and bound by a ring to keep them from parting. The _punch_ is used in
making bolts or rivets, the _slice_ and _fire irons_ for arranging the
fuel in the furnace, and removing small articles after they are heated,
the _double hooks_ for removing or suspending bars, and for some other
purposes.




THE BRASSFOUNDER.

[Illustration: Casting.]


Next to iron, perhaps brass is the metal chiefly employed in the
manufacture of articles of daily use, and the trade of the Brassfounder
is therefore of very great importance, especially in connexion with the
small metal fittings, such as catches, locks, bolts, hooks, screws, and
other objects used in completing and furnishing the house.

Brass is not a pure metal, but is what is called an alloy, that is, a
mixture of various metals. It is composed of copper and zinc in such
proportions as may be necessary to obtain various degrees of hardness
and colour, according to the use for which the compound is to be
employed. The best proportions for common brass are about two parts of
copper to one part of zinc. Formerly brass was made by heating copper
with _calamine_ (which is the ore of zinc) and charcoal, but it is now
formed from melting the two metals together. It is then cast into plates,
which are either broken up for recasting into any required form, or
rolled into sheets. Common brass is very malleable, is more easily melted
than copper, and may be cast into any form. It will take a very high
polish, does not rust or tarnish by exposure to the air, and, although
it is durable in wear, is sufficiently soft to yield readily to the file
and other tools used by the workmen. These properties make it useful for
a great variety of purposes where steel or iron could not be so well
employed.

[Illustration: Crucible. Magnet.]

The smelting or mixing houses where the brass is made are fitted with air
furnaces, and in some of the best workshops the _crucibles_ or melting
pots are made of _plumbago_ or pure blacklead, which, although it is more
expensive, is much more durable than the Stourbridge clay, of which the
commoner crucibles are formed.

A very fine quality of brass for best castings consists of three parts
of best selected copper, and two of spelter, with some best scrap
brass and a little tin; while a second quality is formed of two parts
of ordinary copper and one part of spelter, melted into ingots with a
proportion of scrap brass and brass filings. Before the latter are used
the iron filings are separated from them by a _magnet_, or by a series of
magnets fastened to a revolving chain frame.

The sheet brass is procured from the mills where it is rolled, and the
brass wire is also supplied from the special manufactories where it is
drawn ready for use.

[Illustration: Making Moulds.]

The method of _making moulds_ for casting iron has already been
mentioned, and those employed by the Brassfounder are quite similar, the
tools used by the mould maker being the _trowel_, _mallet_, _rule_, and
_sand hook_, the _shovel_ for removing the sand, the _brush_ for sweeping
the surface, the _bellows_ for blowing off the dust, and the _compasses_
for measuring accurately.

[Illustration: Brush. Sand Hook. Compasses. Bellows. Shovel. Rule.
Trowel. Mallet.]

The principal materials for making foundry moulds for brass castings are
fine sand and loam mixed in various proportions, according to the nature
of the work. New sand is used for fine castings, old sand for ordinary
work. The requisite external support is given by a couple of shallow
rectangular iron frames without tops or bottoms, called _flasks_ or
_casting boxes_.

The two halves constituting a casting box carry ears corresponding
exactly with one another, one set pierced with holes, the other furnished
with points entering truly into these holes, and which may be made fast
in them by cross-pins or wedges. One of the flasks is laid face downward
on a board longer and wider than it, and is then rammed full of moulding
sand; the surface is struck off level with a straight metal bar or
scraper, a little loose sand is sprinkled upon it, and another board
of proper size placed over it and rubbed down close. The two boards
and the flask contained between them are turned over and the top board
is taken off; the clean surface of moist sand now exposed is dusted
over with perfectly dry fine parting sand, or very fine red brickdust.
The patterns or models are now properly arranged on the surface of the
same, the cylindrical or thick parts being partly sunk in the latter,
and care being also taken to leave sufficient space between the several
patterns to prevent one part breaking into the other, and also passages
or _ingates_, by which to pour in the metal and allow the air to escape.
The patterns are arranged on both sides a central passage or runner,
technically called a _ridge_, from which again small lateral passages
are made, leading into every section of the mould. The general surface
is then properly arranged with the aid of small _trowels_, and a little
fine parting sand or brickdust is shaken over it. When this has been
accomplished, the upper part of the flask is fitted to the lower by the
pins, and then also rammed full of mould sand. The fine dry parting sand
or brickdust serves to prevent the two halves from sticking together. A
board is now placed on the top of the upper half, and struck smartly in
different places with a mallet, after which the upper half and its board
are lifted up very gently and quite level, and then turned over, so that
the upper half rests inverted on its board. The models are next removed,
and channels scooped out from the cavities left by them to the hollows
or pouring holes (_ingates_) at the end of the flask. Solid _cores_ of
sand or metal are adjusted in the proper places when the article is
required to be cast hollow (brass cocks, for instance), and also iron
rails intended to have brass heads cast on them, or such other articles
of iron as are required to be solidly united with the brass. The faces of
both halves are now finally dusted with waste flour or meal dust; the two
halves are then replaced upon each other, and the box is fixed together
by screw clamps. The moulds for _fine castings_ (articles with ornamental
surfaces, as screens, sconces, bell-levers, &c.) are faced with various
fine substances, such as charcoal, loamstone, rottenstone, &c. that
they may retain a sharp impression; after which they are most carefully
dried. For ordinary work it is generally considered better that the sand
should retain a little moisture, though great care must be taken in this
respect, to guard against the danger of explosion.

[Illustration: Braces. Set Moulds. Cores.]

The _mould_ then is a square frame, mostly of iron, filled with peculiar
dark red sand, which is pressed into a firm mass, in which the patterns
of the casting are imbedded and their perfect shape impressed. The
casters work at a large _trough_ filled with the sand, and the workshop,
with its forge, has some resemblance to a bakehouse where black bread
is being kneaded into loaves. The first mould is made for what is called
the “odd side” of the pattern—that is to say (in solid castings), the
lower, or inferior side—and this serves as a sort of pattern to which
the moulder refers in fine castings. The pattern being lifted off or
out as soon as the sand-mould is sufficiently solid, the whole surface,
in which the chasing of the pattern is clearly defined, is dusted with
bean-floor or pounded “pot” first, and afterwards with loam, sand,
charcoal, or coal-dust. This has the effect of making a smooth surface,
and effectually filling the interstices in the sand, so as to prevent any
raggedness in the casting. Each mould, or rather the two sides of the
mould, are then placed near the surface and slightly baked, a channel
having been made in the edge of each for conducting the melted metal
to the pattern. The two sides are then placed together and held firmly
by their pins and sockets, and the mould is ready for the casting. The
“pots,” or crucibles of greyish clay, which turn red by the action of
the fire, are in the furnaces like so many tall flower-pots. The dirty
yellowish brass ingots, made on the premises at a large mixing furnace,
having been first placed across the tops of the pots, that they may
expand before being melted, are about twenty minutes afterwards reduced
to a molten mass, above which hovers a light sea-green flame mingled with
streaks of brilliant colour, like the water from a dyehouse; meanwhile
the moulds have been placed in a slanting position, with the opening in
the side upwards, against a bank of sand or brickwork, and everything is
prepared for pouring. A man, who should be strong in the wrist, stands
on the _furnace_, which has the openings at the top, like a French
cooking-stove, and taking off the brick covers from the square aperture,
whence rushes out a tongue of green flame, lifts out the _pot_ with a
pair of _tongs_, and after the dross is removed by the _skimmer_ or
_grunter_, hands it to the pourer, who fills each mould in succession.
The fumes which rise from the midst of the coloured fire are peculiar
and penetrating, and the zinc eliminated from the molten brass falls in
a metallic snowstorm, its flaky particles adhering to everything with
which they come in contact, while the resistance of the sand to the metal
causes a series of reports like muffled pistol-shots.

[Illustration: Large Tongs. Small Tongs. Pot Holes. Skimmer. Grunter.]

The brass cocks and plugs used in gas-fittings are all cast in one
central stem, like cherries on a stick, their hollow forms being secured
by means of _cores_ made of hardened sand placed in the shape impressed
in the mould. These are broken off the central stem with a pair of
_pincers_ immediately after casting.

The ornamental “vases” and larger ornaments which form the body of
ordinary gas chandeliers and lamps are formed out of thin metal by a
process called “stamping out,” the plates of metal being placed on a
hollow die, upon which a heavy hammer, or rather weight, is brought
down, being released from a latch and worked by the foot. The depth of
the casting would make so heavy a blow necessary that there would be
danger of splitting the metal, an accident which is prevented by the
introduction of a leaden shape and a layer of clay, which is decreased
after each blow of the hammer until the proper depth is gradually secured
without injury.

The process called “reversing” is an operation which secures a hollow
casting, the inner or hollow side being called the “reverse.” For this
purpose a mould is made from one in wax, and the impression in the mould
hardened, so that another model can be taken from it. This enables the
moulder to secure a core which fits the impression in the mould, as
one cup would stand inside another; and between the mould containing
the sunk pattern and that with the projecting core there are placed
strips of black clay, to secure sufficient thickness of metal, by not
allowing the hollow to be too accurately filled. The pattern when cast
is “laid out” on a hollow hemisphere of iron filled with pitch, and the
irregularities of the casting removed by hand tools, _files_, _rasps_,
and _knives_. In the case of figures, such as cupids, &c. forming
ornaments for candelabra, the various limbs have often to be modelled
in separate “cores,” which are afterwards baked hard, and put together
like a puzzle-map, imbedded in the sand of the mould previous to casting.
This requires great skill to effect successfully, and an experienced
“reverser” is a man of mark in the factory.

[Illustration: Fork. Vent Wire. Sleeking Tool. Rasp. File. Vice. Pincers.
Hammer. Double-headed Knife. Saw. Drawing Knife. Knife.]

The completed castings are now removed to the chasing-room, where we may
watch the gradual process of beautifying to which they are subjected, and
the sharpening of the ornamental details by means of _tool_ and _graver_,
in a similar way to the first rough “laying-out,” which removes the
irregularities of the pattern. The arms and branches which form a part of
the gas chandelier work, as well as many of the scroll-work ornaments,
are cast in halves, which are taken to the soldering-room, where a
workman, seated at a forge-like furnace, heats them in the burning
embers, and applies to the edges the solder, with which is mingled a
flux of borax and water to secure its melting. The heat is increased by
a blowpipe, which is in reality a double or jacketed tube, the inner
one supplying gas, and the outer being connected with a large pair of
bellows, and mixing atmospheric air with the lighted gas at the point of
combustion.

The pickling room is a large shed-like place filled with tubs, troughs,
and earthen pans. Into one of these, containing diluted aqua-fortis, the
metal is plunged for the purpose of removing the scale produced on the
surface by the action of the fire; from this it is dipped in a stronger
solution, to undergo the process called “fizzing,” and its final baptism
in pure acid restores the beautiful primrose colour which properly
belongs to it. It is still dull, however, and goes to be “scratched,” an
operation effected by means of a revolving wire-brush, turned by a wheel
and treadle, and kept continually wet with water.

The ornamental processes have next to be considered, and these are
many. Previous to burnishing, the work is dipped in argot or tartar
(the lees of wine-casks steeped in water), so that it may be subject to
a strong antioxyde. The burnishing itself produces those bright veins
and ornamental surfaces so often seen in brass work, and is effected by
fixing the work in a vice, and rubbing the parts of the pattern which are
to be brightened with a steel tool having a smooth bevel edge. After
being treated with ox-gall, bean flour, and acid, to remove any still
adhering grease, the work is dried, by being first dipped in hot water
and afterwards buried in a pan of warm sawdust. Then there is lacquering,
both black and white, a simple process enough, since the lacquer is laid
on with a brush, and the work dried on a warm plate. Much of the work of
the Brassfounder, as far as regards these latter operations, is of course
effected by machinery, but the casting itself is entirely completed by
the skill of the workmen.

[Illustration]




THE GILDER.

[Illustration: A Gilder’s Workshop.]


When once the house is built and the work of bricklayer, carpenter,
plumber, painter, glazier, and mason is finished, it is necessary to set
about those decorations which accompany the furnishing; and one of the
first of the trades needed for this purpose is that of the Gilder, who
has to do not only with cornices, mouldings and other ornaments, but
also with the frames of pictures and looking-glasses that adorn the walls
and chimney-pieces.

These frames, however, have first to be made by the joiner, and then
receive the work of the carver, or the ornament maker. The joiner does
little more than put the plain groundwork of the frame together; but the
duty of the carver is of a very artistic description; and to be a good
carver in wood requires an education and a taste very nearly equal to
that of the sculptor, with whom the artists in wood formerly held a high
rank.

Most of the ornaments now used for frames, however, are less expensive
than those formerly produced by the carver who added a fresh value to
the painting or the looking-glass by exercising his skill upon the
costly settings in which they appeared. Composition ornaments are now
in general demand for all but the most expensive frames, and as this
composition—which is formed of glue, water, linseed oil, resin, and
whiting—is pressed into moulds when it is of about the consistence
of dough, it is evident that the mould maker has partially taken
the carver’s place. A new substance, however, has to a great extent
superseded the old composition, and this is _papier-mâché_, or the pulp
of paper (literally, mashed or beaten paper), which, from its lightness,
its greater strength and durability, and the thinness to which ornaments
made of it can be reduced, is preferable for all large decorations.

Whatever may be the size or pattern of the frame, however, we will
suppose that the ornament maker received it from the joiner, who puts it
together after it has been covered with coatings of hot size and whiting;
the size being made from parchment cuttings or kid leather parings
boiled to a sort of jelly. The nail or screw holes are then filled up
with putty by the help of the putty knife, and the surface of the frame
smoothed with pieces of pumice stone. The ornament maker next fixes on
the decorations and hands it to the Gilder, whose first business is to
wash the ornaments carefully in order to remove any oil that may have
remained on their surface from the inside of the cast.

[Illustration: Size. Whiting. Putty Knife. Badger Tool. Duster. Gold Leaf
Knife. Cushion. Tip.]

The principal tools required by the Gilder are, first: the _cushion_,
which is a flat board covered with several layers of woollen or flannel
and afterwards with a piece of leather, which is stretched tightly over
it and nailed down to the edges, thus forming a firm but soft and
elastic bed. A rim of parchment carried round one end of the cushion
serves to hold the gold leaf. Second: a _gold leaf knife_—which is a
straight smooth-edged instrument, not very sharp, but carefully pointed
at the end. Third: the _tip_—a tool generally made of two pieces of
card or very thin board glued together and holding between them a row
of camel’s hairs. It is also necessary to have a _badger tool_ and a
_duster_; the first for removing the loose edges and flying scraps of
gold leaf, after the gilding is completed, and the latter for brushing
away dust from the frame.

[Illustration: Miniature Burnisher. Burnisher. No. 1. Burnisher. No. 2.
Burnisher. No. 3. Chisel. Putter-down. Gold Leaf Box.]

The _burnishers_ are pieces of smooth stone (flint or agate) set in
handles, and are used for rubbing some parts of the gold, when it is
set on the frame, until it attains a brilliant polish and smoothness of
surface: the bright gold portions of a frame being known as _burnish_,
and the dull parts or “dead gold” as _matt_.

A _chisel_ and _knife_ are necessary for removing any inequalities or
overflowings of size from the edge of the frame; the _feather duster_ is
used to dust the new gilding before it is sent home; the _size pot_ is
the vessel in which the size is melted, and the _pan_ receives it before
it is laid on. The _putter-down_ is a large soft brush used for pressing
down the gold into the ornaments, and removing the ragged edges of the
gold-leaf from those parts of the frame where it is most difficult to
place it smoothly.

[Illustration: Feather Duster. Size Pot. Pan. Gold Book.]

The _gold box_ is of course a receptacle for the gold leaf, and as the
leaf is sent from the gold beaters in sheets placed between leaves of
paper sewn together like a volume, this is naturally called the _gold
book_.

Having received his frame, then, the Gilder first gives it two or three
coatings of “thin white,” which is the name by which the size and whiting
is known in the trade. If any part of the frame is to be burnished, it
afterwards receives a coat or two of rather thicker size.

When these are dry, strong warm size is laid on with a brush; this
is called _clear cole_, and produces a smooth glossy surface, which
prevents the _oil gold size_ from sinking through. Oil gold size is the
next coating given to the frame, and it is made of ochre and boiled
linseed oil, ground up together into a smooth creamy liquid, which is
thinned with more boiled linseed oil, and put on very carefully with
a soft brush. In a few hours, after the oil gold size is put on, it
is sufficiently dry to receive the gold leaf; the surface being then
slightly sticky, so that it will hold it firmly and without its own
surface being disturbed.

[Illustration: Pipkin. Rule. Gold Size Pot.]

The Gilder now commences the most important part of his work by taking
the cushion on his left hand, with his thumb through a loop which is
attached to the bottom of the leather; between the fingers of the same
hand he places the tools that he will have to use,—namely, the tip, the
gold knife, and the camel-hair pencil. He then takes a gold book and
carefully blows out a leaf at a time on to the cushion, until he has
eight or ten leaves all heaped together within the rim of parchment which
holds them from flying away. This is a very delicate operation, since if
he should blow too hard the leaves would be carried all over the room.
He next separates one of the leaves from the rest with his knife, and
without cutting or tearing it lays it down smoothly upon the front part
of the cushion, partly by a gentle use of the knife itself, and partly
by skilfully blowing upon it. Then taking the tip in his right-hand he
carefully presses it on the leaf, to which it adheres, and by this means
transfers it to that part of the frame where he is at work. Where the
ornaments are very deep, the same part is gilt three or four times over,
and the gold is sometimes pressed in with a wad of cotton.

[Illustration: Skewing Brush. Small Pencil.]

After the whole surface is carefully _skewed_, or gone over with the
brush which removes the ragged edges and still further presses the gold
into the ornaments, the frame is well dusted with another soft brush, and
then sized with clear size, after which the work is complete.

Supposing however that any part of the frame is to be of burnished gilt,
the clear cole and the oil gold size must not be suffered to touch that
portion,—burnish gold size, a substance made of grease, clay, black lead,
red chalk, and bullock’s blood, is used instead of the oil gold size.
Several coats of this are laid on the part to be burnished, each being
allowed to dry, and perfectly smoothed, before the other is applied. The
surface is then washed with a sponge and clean water, another coating of
gold size is laid on, the gold leaf is applied, and the burnishing tools
used to impart the required lustre.




THE CABINET MAKER AND UPHOLSTERER.

[Illustration: CABINET MAKER’S SHOP.]


The trades of the Carpenter and the Joiner having been considered, we may
now turn to that of the Cabinet Maker, who, though he makes the furniture
of the house, and seldom has anything to do with building or fitting the
house itself, uses many of the same tools as the joiner.

[Illustration: Panel Plane. Veneer Plane. Smoothing Plane. Floats. Rebate
Plane. Hand Saw. Rebate Plane.]

As the Cabinet Maker mostly works in more costly woods, and the
operations of his trade have to be performed with greater nicety, his
implements are generally of rather a better sort; while he has to fashion
the articles in which he deals in so many different shapes that some of
his tools, such as _planes_ and _gouges_, are constructed especially for
him, like the _panel plane_, used as its name implies in smoothing and
forming the edges of panels for wardrobes, chiffoniers, and other pieces
of furniture before they are placed in their frames, and the _veneer
plane_, intended for putting on _veneers_, or the thin slabs of costly
wood with which more common woods are frequently covered. The _smoothing
plane_ and the _rebate plane_, as well as the _hand saw_, the _tenon
saw_, the _gimlet_, and the _rule_ and _square_, have already been
mentioned in connexion with the joiner’s business.

Then there are moulding planes, with their blades shaped hollow so that
they will cut a strip of wood into a rounded form, or shaped round so as
to cut a hollow groove.

[Illustration: Square. Hand Saw. Gimlet. Rule.]

Sometimes boards are joined at the edges by a process called match
boarding: a groove being made along the edge of one board while the edge
of another is cut with a tongue along the middle to fit accurately into
the groove. For this purpose a pair of match planes are used, one of
which makes the groove and the other the tongue exactly of the proper
size to fit perfectly. This kind of joint is used for common doors, which
it is not worth while to frame together in panels. The boards after being
_matched_ are nailed close together to strong cross-pieces.

The operations of mortising and dovetailing have been described in the
description of joiner’s work. The various fittings and joints used
in making chairs, couches, tables, cabinets, side-boards, and other
furniture are adaptations of the same kind, or differ only according to
the shape and position of the various parts. In ornamental cabinet work
the separate parts, such as pillars, legs, arms, and other pieces, are
often supplied by the turner and the wood carver, who sometimes carry out
their designs under the direction of the Cabinet Maker.

Mahogany and many other of the harder woods are difficult to work, as the
grain does not all run the same way, so that in planing them the wood is
likely to split or chip where it should be shaved off smoothly. To remedy
this inconvenience, the Cabinet Maker’s planes are furnished with double
irons, that is, an iron with a flat dull edge is screwed on to the face
of the cutting iron, so as to prevent the shavings chipping against the
grain. The more cross-grained the wood is the closer the workman brings
down the dull iron towards the edge of the sharp one, and his shavings
are consequently finer.

The _veneering plane_ is about the same size as the _smoothing plane_,
but the iron instead of having a smooth edge is toothed like a fine saw,
so that, instead of taking off shavings, it makes scratches all along the
grain of the wood. This is applied to the veneer as well as to the wood
to which the veneer is to be glued, so that the glue may easily hold the
two rough surfaces together.

[Illustration: Tool Chest.]

Previous to the veneer being put on, the work is well warmed before a
fire, and the glue brush worked freely over both the veneer and wood
to which it is to be applied. When the veneer is put on, it is rubbed
backward and forward, at the same time being pressed down with the hands
until it sticks in the right place. There are often lumps here and there
where there is too much glue, and these are remedied by the _veneering
hammer_, the head of which is made of wood furnished with a strip of iron
plate. This strip is laid flat on the veneer, and the head of the hammer
pressed with the hand while it is worked about by the handle, pressing
out the glue as it moves towards the edge. When a piece of furniture is
too large to be covered with one veneer, these thin slabs of wood are
laid on in several pieces, the edges being first planed quite straight
and made to meet with the greatest accuracy. The whole surface is
afterwards worked with the toothing plane, and then scraped with a flat
square piece of steel, which takes off a wonderfully fine thin shaving
and leaves the surface perfectly smooth. It is afterwards finished with
sandpaper. It is then _French polished_ with a liquid composed mostly
of rectified spirits of wine, gum, shellac, gum seed lac, and Venice
turpentine, the furniture being previously well oiled that it may better
receive this sort of varnish.

_Clamps_ are a sort of screw vice for holding the various parts of the
work. The _bow saw_ is a small fine blade of steel notched like a saw,
and fixed to a short handle, from which a wooden or metal bow extends
to the other end of the blade. The bow keeps the saw from buckling or
breaking, and the tool is used for small work, like the fretwork in front
of pianos, where a corner has to be turned and the piece sawn out. The
_screws_ seen in the larger picture hanging above the Cabinet Maker’s
bench are used for holding pieces together after being glued, or on other
occasions.

[Illustration: Bow Saw. Clamps.]

It is supposed that there are about 50,000 workers in wood in London, and
350,000 in all England. About 160,000 timber trees of average size are
required to make the furniture for the new houses built every year in
England and Wales. In cabinet making there are many departments, such as
the chair maker, the bedstead maker, the carver, the general manufacturer
of tables, drawers, side-boards, wardrobes, &c. and the fancy Cabinet
Maker, who uses costly woods and makes workboxes, desks, dressing-cases,
and similar articles.

A good set of Cabinet Maker’s tools is worth from £30 to £40.

The Upholsterer, whose trade is generally joined to that of the master
Cabinet Maker, does what is called the “soft work,” that is, he
undertakes the curtains, hangings, cushions, carpets, beds, and the
stuffing of the seats of chairs. For these operations he requires but few
tools.

[Illustration: Upholsterer’s Shop.]

[Illustration: Devil. Strainer. Web Strainer. Bench Screw. Square.]

The _devil_ is the ugly and very absurd name given to a machine
consisting of a box, inside which a spiked wheel turns; the use of this
implement is to separate and tear to pieces such woven substances
as, when reduced to shreds, serve for the stuffing of furniture, as
also to soften and make finer hemp or tow for the same purpose, when
horsehair, which is the best and most expensive material, is not used.
Cocoa-nut fibre is now sometimes applied for this purpose; and in the
commonest furniture hay is frequently placed as a foundation, with a
small quantity of horsehair on the top. The _bench screw_ is a kind of
vice which will hold a very thick substance, like the seat of a chair
or sofa, without injuring the woodwork; the _web strainer_ is used for
stretching strong cross-pieces of webbing across the bottom of the seats
of chairs or couches, to make a firm foundation for the stuffing to rest
upon, and with the ordinary _strainer_ to bring the canvas cover that
confines the stuffing tightly and firmly to its place, an operation which
requires great care, especially when metal springs are placed beneath the
horsehair to make the seat more elastic. The Upholsterer’s _hammer_ is
of such a shape that it will drive a small nail deeply down in a space
when it is hidden by the damask or leather covering of the furniture.
The _punches_ are for a similar purpose; while the _needle_ and the
_regulator_ are used in stuffing the seats and properly adjusting the
hair or other material.

[Illustration: Upholsterer’s Hammers. Punches. Float. Screwdriver.
Needle. Regulator. Bradawl.]




FLOOR-CLOTH MANUFACTURER.

[Illustration: DRYING WAREHOUSE.]


The trade of manufacturing floor-cloth may be said to be connected with
the furnishing of the house, since this very useful covering for the
floors of halls and passages is now in almost universal use. Floor-cloth
is generally made in large factories built for the purpose, since
considerable space is required, not only for preparing, painting, and
putting the pattern upon the cloth, but also for drying it when it is
finished, the great lengths in which it is made rendering it necessary to
hang it from a great height, in order that it may dry without the paint
being damaged (_see drying warehouse_). The smell of the paint and other
substances also makes it desirable to have the factory well ventilated,
and situated at some distance from dwelling-houses.

The cloth is made partly of hemp and partly of flax, the former being
the cheaper of the two, but the latter being fitted to retain the oil
and paint on the surface without allowing it so easily to sink or soak
through. In order to avoid the necessity for seams or joinings in the
cloth, looms are constructed expressly for weaving canvas of the greatest
width likely to be required. When the pieces of cloth are taken to the
floor-cloth factories, they are generally either 100 yards long and 6
yards wide, 108 yards long and 7 yards wide, or 113 yards long and 8
yards wide. The flax and hemp are spun and the canvas woven principally
in Scotland, in the town of Dundee.

[Illustration: Shears. Cutting Knife.]

The canvas is cut into pieces (_see cutting knife and shears_), varying
from 60 to 100 feet long, and each of these pieces is stretched over a
frame in a vertical position, most factories having a large number of
such frames, some often 100 feet long by 18 or 20 feet high, and others
of smaller dimensions. A wash of melted size is applied by means of a
brush to each surface; and while this is wet the surface is well rubbed
with a flat piece of pumice stone, by which the little irregularities of
the canvas are worn down, and a foundation is laid for the oil and colour
afterwards to be applied.

The preparation of japanned cottons, which are used for table covers, or
what is known as “oil-cloth,” is very similar.

The paint employed for floor-cloth consists of the same mineral colours
as that used in house painting, and is mixed with linseed oil in the same
way; but it is very much thicker and stiffer in consistence, and has
very little turpentine added to it. The canvas receives several coatings
on the back as well as on the front, and is well dried and smoothed at
intervals.

[Illustration: Blocks. The finished Pattern. Pattern for Floor Cloth.
Back of Printing Block.]

[Illustration: Preparing Japanned Cottons.]

The pattern is placed on by means of wooden blocks, on the first of
which the rudiments, or ground work, of the design is cut, and on the
rest other portions of the pattern, so that, as they are covered with
paint and applied to the cloth by the workman, the pattern is gradually
printed, and appears in the different colours which are successively
applied to each block.

[Illustration: Printing Floor Cloth.]

The blocks are made of pear-tree wood on one side and of deal on the
other, the pear-tree wood being more easily engraved with the pattern.

The blocks (which we will suppose to be four for one pattern—red, yellow,
blue, and green) being ready, and the prepared canvas spread out on a
flat table, the printing commences.

The paint (say red) is applied with a brush to the surface of a pad or
cushion formed of flannel covered with floor cloth; the block held by
a handle at the back is placed face downwards on this cushion, and the
layer of paint thus obtained on the surface of the block is printed on
the canvas by pressing the block smartly down upon the surface of the
latter. A second impression is made in the same way, by the side of and
close to the first, until the whole surface of the canvas is printed over
with the pattern of this first block, which is generally about 15 inches
square. Then the second block is applied, and adds a little more to the
pattern in another colour; the third follows, adding still more; and then
the fourth, which completes the printing.

[Illustration: Trowel. Claw. Scrubbing Brush. Palette Knife. Paint
Brushes. Roughing Comb. Hammer.]

The _trowel_ and _palette knife_ spreading and mixing the paint, the
_roughing comb_ for patterns where the grain of wood is imitated, and the
pots, cans, and jars, for the colours, are the principal tools besides
those already described.




THE PAPER STAINER.

[Illustration: PRINTING PRESS.]


The trade of the Paper Stainer has grown to be one of considerable
importance, and this is not to be wondered at when we consider how much
the art of paper staining has increased the means of decorating our
houses, by hanging the walls with elegant patterns printed in beautiful
colours, instead of leaving them of one dull uniform hue, or a bare
surface of wood and plaster.

In old times the walls of rooms were either of panelled wood, sometimes
carved and polished, or were hung with tapestry made with the needle, or
with woven silk, cotton, or linen, but the former was extremely costly,
and the latter neither cleanly nor healthy. The trade of the Paper
Stainer has to a great extent superseded both, and the interior walls of
houses are now seldom formed entirely of wood, since they are intended to
be covered with various qualities of paper hangings.

[Illustration: Front of Printing Block. Back of Wooden Block for
Printing.]

The mode of printing or painting a pattern on large sheets of paper
has now been in use for nearly two hundred years, although, of course,
improved methods are at present employed.

There are three modes of producing the pattern on paper hangings. 1st.
Wooden blocks are carved with the outlines of the figures only in relief;
with these the paper is printed, and the pattern is afterwards finished
by hand painting with a pencil. This mode is slow and too expensive for
ordinary use. 2dly. A sheet of leather, tin, or copper, is cut with holes
in the required pattern, and a brush dipped in colour is worked over the
sheet after it is laid upon the paper, so that the paint goes through the
holes, and leaves the pattern in colour. This is called stencilling, and
is only employed for very common hangings. The third process consists of
carving a wood block for each of the colours used in the pattern, and
printing the paper by almost exactly the same method as that employed for
printing floor-cloth, an operation which has already been described.

[Illustration: Crutch. Ladle. Hand Brush. Spat. Paint Brushes.]

The paper is printed in pieces twelve yards long. A piece is laid out
on a long bench and the ground colour applied, consisting of whiting
tinted with some sort of pigment and liquefied with melted size. This is
laid on with large brushes. When the paper is dry it is ready to receive
the print at the _printing press_, where the blocks are pressed upon it
by a sort of weighted arm which comes down from above the centre of the
bench. There must generally be as many blocks as there are colours in the
pattern.

[Illustration: Colour Sieve. Paint Pot. Colour Drum. Size Can.]

Some paper hangings have a glossy or satin ground. To produce this a
ground of satin white, properly tinted, is laid on; this ground is then
rubbed with powdered French chalk, and worked with a brush till a gloss
is produced. Sometimes these papers are passed between heated rollers
which have been engraved with a sort of pattern, and this produces a
pattern without any additional colour, like that of figured or watered
silk.

Flock papers are those in which part of the pattern resembles cloth. To
produce this the pattern is printed, not in paint, but in size, and then
the paper being passed through the _flock drum_, the flock (which is
composed of fragments of woollen cloth) adheres to the pattern.

[Illustration: Drum for laying on Flock.]

Striped hangings are sometimes produced by the paper being quickly passed
on a roller beneath a trough, the colour in which flows through a number
of parallel slits in the bottom; and occasionally various coloured
stripes are obtained by dividing the trough into cells, with one cell
and one slit for each colour. Some papers, in order to bear washing or
cleaning, are printed with colours mixed with oil or varnish instead of
size.

[Illustration: Paper Staining Machine.]




THE CALICO PRINTER.

[Illustration: CYLINDER PRINTING MACHINE.]


The trade of the Calico Printer may be said to be one of the most
important in this country, since we export such immense quantities of
cotton prints to our various colonies, as well as to other countries in
the world, that this business forms a very considerable part of British
commerce.

Calicoes, muslins, &c. intended for printing must first have the fibres
removed from their surface by the operation of the singeing machine;
which consists of a half-cylinder of iron or copper laid horizontally,
and kept at a bright heat by a range of gas-flames or a furnace; over
this half-cylinder the length of cloth is drawn with a steady motion till
the down or fibre is singed off.

[Illustration: Bowking Kiers.]

The next process is that of bleaching, because the whiter the cotton
cloth becomes, the more light it will reflect from the surface, and the
more brilliant the colour of the dyes will appear.

The principal chemical substance used for bleaching cotton is chloride of
lime, which is known as bleaching powder; but there are several processes
employed in its application, as well as various methods which are
adopted by different manufacturers to increase its effects by mechanical
contrivances, the application of heat, or otherwise.

[Illustration: Dash Wheel.]

The first operation of bleaching, however, and that which immediately
follows singeing, is boiling the cloth in an alkaline bath consisting
of a solution of soda. For this purpose a _bowking apparatus_ is used.
This machine (_see cut_) is, in fact, a large cauldron, with a flat false
bottom to protect the cloth from being scorched by the fire beneath.
Through the centre of this false bottom a vertical pipe rises from near
the real bottom to a height above the top of the cauldron, and carries a
conical cap like an umbrella above its open end at top. When the liquid
in the cauldron begins to boil thoroughly the steam forces a constant
stream of liquid up the pipe, which stream is scattered by forcing
against the umbrella-shaped cap, and so falls with some force back on to
the cotton in the cauldron. When this process has continued long enough,
the liquor is allowed to cool, and the cotton is taken to be rinsed at
the _dash wheel_, where it is subjected to the free action of water, or
to a rinsing machine, so constructed that the web travels on rollers, and
is thoroughly washed during its course.

[Illustration: Wringing Machine.]

The simplest and earliest method of imprinting figures upon calico is
by means of a wooden block, upon the face of which the design is cut in
relief, as in an ordinary wood-cut. The block is of sycamore, holly, or
pear-tree wood, or more commonly of deal, faced with one of these woods.
The block varies in size from nine to twelve inches long, and from four
to seven inches broad, and it is furnished on the back with a strong
handle. When the design is complicated, and a very distinct impression is
required, the figure is sometimes formed by the insertion of narrow slips
of flattened copper wire, the space between being filled with felt.

[Illustration: Face of Block for Calico Printing. Back of Calico Block.]

The printing block, which is worked by hand, is charged with colour by
pressing it gently upon a piece of superfine woollen cloth called the
_sieve_, stretched tightly over a wooden drum, which floats in a tub full
of size or thick varnish to give it elasticity, so that every part of the
raised device may acquire a sufficient coating of colour. The sieve is
kept uniformly covered with the colouring matter by a boy or girl called
the tearer, who takes up with a brush a small quantity of the colour
contained in a small pot, and distributes it uniformly over the surface;
for if this were not done, the block would take up the colour unequally.

The printing shop is a long well-lighted apartment, the air of which
is kept warm for the purpose of drying the cloth as it is printed; to
insure which it is passed over hanging rollers, so as to expose a large
surface to the air. The printing table, which is about six feet long, is
made of some well seasoned hard wood, such as mahogany, or of marble, or
flag-stone, the object being to present a perfectly flat hard surface.
This table is covered with a blanket, upon which the calico is extended,
and the block, being charged with colour, is applied to its surface, a
blow being given with a wooden mallet to transfer the impression fully
to the cloth. It is necessary, of course, to join the different parts
of the design with precision, and in doing so the printer is guided by
small pins at the corners of the block. Thus, by repeated applications of
the block to the woollen cloth and to the calico alternately, the whole
length of calico is printed.

[Illustration: Drying Room.]

By this method, a single block prints only one colour, so that, if
the design contain three or more colours, three or more blocks will be
required, all of equal size, the raised parts in each corresponding
with the depressed parts in all the others; in order, therefore, to
print a piece of cloth twenty-eight yards long, and thirty inches broad,
with three blocks, each measuring nine inches by five, no less than
672 applications of each, or 2,016 applications of the three blocks,
are necessary. Thus it will be seen that printing by hand is a tedious
operation, requiring more diligence than skill.

[Illustration: Brush.]

When the design, however, consists of straight parallel stripes of
different colours, they may be applied by one block at a single
impression. For this purpose the colours are contained in as many small
tin troughs as there are colours to be printed. These troughs are
arranged in a line, and a small portion of each colour is transferred
from them to the woollen cloth by a kind of wire-brush. The colour is
distributed evenly in stripes over the surface of the sieve by a wooden
roller covered with woollen cloth. For the rainbow style, as a peculiar
pattern is called, the colours are blended into one another at their
edges by a brush or rubber.

An important improvement has been made in the construction of
hand-blocks, by the application of a stereotype plate as the printing
surface. A small mould is produced from a model of the pattern, and the
stereotype copies are then made by pouring mixed metal into it. A number
of the stereotype plates are then formed into a printing block, by being
arranged in a stout piece of wood.

[Illustration: One of the Cylinders of the Machine, showing the way by
which it is coloured.]

The greatest mechanical improvement in the art of calico printing was the
invention of the _cylinder_ or _roller_ printing at the end of the last
century. This style of printing has been generally adopted in Lancashire,
and is the cause of the success of the English over the continental
printers. One cylinder machine, attended by one man to regulate the
rollers, is capable of printing as many pieces as one hundred men and
one hundred girls could print with hand blocks in the same time. A mile
length of calico can be printed off with four different colours in a
single hour.

This cylinder machine consists of a hollow cylinder or roller of copper,
about three feet long and three or four inches in diameter, the pattern
on which has been produced by the pressure of a mill, on which the design
has been originally stamped by the pressure of a hard steel roller which
has been engraved.

The copper cylinders are mounted on a strong iron shaft with a toothed
wheel at its end, in order to put it in train with the rotatory printing
machine for one, two, or more colours. On a roller at the upper part of
this apparatus are wound the calico webs stitched together, the end of
which is brought between the engraved copper cylinder and a large centre
roller covered with blankets, against which it is made to bear with a
regular pressure.

The engraved cylinder turns on the top of another cylinder covered with
woollen cloth, which revolves at the same time as the former, while its
under part dips in an oblong trough containing the dyeing matter, which
is of a pasty consistence. The engraved cylinder is in this way supplied
with plenty of printing colour, and is cleared from the superfluity by
the thin edge of a blade made of bronze, called the _doctor_, which is
applied to it as it turns, and gently scrapes the surface. After this
the cylinder acts upon the calico, which receives the impression of the
pattern in colour, and rolls onward at a great rate of speed.

There are various kinds of colours or dye stuffs used in calico printing,
some of which impart fast colours by themselves, and others which require
the web to be first prepared in order that they may become fixed.

In almost all the modes of calico printing the processes are very
numerous to ensure the beauty and permanence of the colours. In what
is called the _steam colour_ printing, the agency of steam is applied
to aid in fixing the colours to the cloth. The cloth is first steeped
in a mordant or fixing liquor, then printed by the cylinder in various
colours, called steam colours. It is then hung up to dry, and is
afterwards exposed to the action of steam by means of various apparatus,
which are adapted to the particular effect intended, to be produced in
fixing the dye.

The designs for calico printing are very expensive, and such a constant
succession of new patterns are demanded, that some of the Lancashire
printers expend several thousands a year on designing and engraving alone.

[Illustration]




THE TINMAN.

[Illustration: WORKSHOP.]


Tin is never found existing in an uncombined or native state. Tin ore
occurs most abundantly in Cornwall and Devon, the mines of these counties
having been celebrated for this metal from very ancient times. The
district in Cornwall where tin mines are most abundant is termed the
“Stannaries.” The Prince of Wales for the time being derives a large
income from the mines, and is termed Lord Warden of the Stannaries. The
word “Stannaries” is derived from the Latin _stannum_, tin. The amount
of tin ore annually obtained from the Cornwall and Devon mines amounts
to 11,000 tons, which, at the average value of £63 per ton, is worth
£693,000. This ore yields about 7,000 tons of the metal, having an
average value of £119 per ton. About four-fifths of all the tin raised in
the world is produced in these mines. The ore is a heavy, hard, brittle,
and usually dark brown mineral, which occurs chiefly in granular masses
of various sizes. These grains are obtained in mines, where they occur in
veins mixed with other minerals, and also from the beds of streams, where
they have been washed out of the soil by the action of running water. In
the former case they are termed tin stone; in the latter stream-tin.

Tin is obtained from the ore by first breaking up the latter, whilst a
current of water flows over it and carries off the impurities, which are
lighter, and therefore more readily borne away than the heavier tin ore.
After being thus freed from the admixture of other minerals, the ore is
usually roasted or burned, to drive off any traces of sulphur it may
contain; it is afterwards heated to redness with blind coal or culm, and
a small portion of lime, when the melted metal separates from the dross,
and runs into cavities prepared for its reception. It is afterwards
refined by being remelted, and other impurities separated, which either
sink or float on the surface. The purest metal is yielded by the ore
called stream-tin, which is smelted with charcoal instead of coal. If
a block of tin thus obtained is heated slightly, and then allowed to
fall from a height, it separates into a number of prisms which adhere
together in pyramidal masses. In this state it is termed grain-tin. Tin
is a silvery-white metal possessed of a high degree of metallic lustre.
It is sufficiently soft to be cut with a knife, and may be readily bent,
when it gives out a peculiar crackling noise; if repeatedly bent and
straightened, it becomes hot from the friction of its particles with one
another, and ultimately breaks. It is inelastic and moderately ductile,
but very malleable, the thickness of tin-foil being about one thousandth
part of an inch. It has but little tenacity, a wire of one-tenth of an
inch in diameter not being able to support a heavier weight than 49 lbs.

Tin is the most easily melted of all the common metals, and it
possesses the valuable property of not rusting when exposed at ordinary
temperatures to the conjoined action of air and water, or even to weak
vegetable acids. Tin, in a pure state, is seldom employed; but in
combination with other metals it is a substance of great value. Its most
important uses depend on its power of resisting the action of air and
moisture; it is therefore largely employed for protecting the surfaces of
copper and iron, that rust so readily.

Tin plate, or more properly tinned plate, which is so largely employed in
the manufacture of saucepans, coffee-pots, tea-kettles, &c. by the tinman
is not, as its ordinary name seems to imply, made of tin, but is formed
of the best sheet iron, rolled out to the required thickness, and coated
on each side with a layer of tin. Copper vessels ought to be invariably
tinned inside, to prevent the rusting of the copper by the action of
acids. Tinfoil is largely employed for the purpose of preserving moist
articles from becoming dry, and is used instead of paper for enclosing
fancy soap, chocolate, and other substances of a similar nature. It is
also extensively used in the manufacture of looking-glasses, and is
sometimes placed behind paper-hangings to exclude the damp of the walls.
The most important alloys into the composition of which tin enters are
bronze, pewter, bell-metal, and solder. Tin dissolved in acids is largely
employed by dyers in fixing or rendering permanent various colours used
in dyeing. The preparation termed putty powder is a rust of tin, obtained
by exposing the melted metal to the air; it is employed in polishing
metals and other articles.

[Illustration: Mallet. Soldering Iron. Hammer. Block Hammer.]

The tinning of the inner surfaces of cooking utensils and other vessels
of capacity is effected by scouring the surface until it is perfectly
bright and clean; then heating the vessel, pouring in some melted tin
and rolling it about, and rubbing the tin all over the surface with a
piece of cloth or a handful of tow; powdered rosin is used to prevent
the formation of oxide. Bridle bits, stirrups, and many other small
articles, are tinned by immersing them in fluid tin. Tin-plate working,
or the forming sheets of tinned iron into a variety of useful vessels and
utensils, is carried on by means of bench and hand _shears_, _mallets_,
and _hammers_, _steel heads_ and _wooden blocks_, _soldering irons_ and
_swages_. In the formation of a vessel, the first operation is to cut the
plate to the proper size and form with shears, and, when the dimensions
of the article require it, to join them together, which is done either
by simply laying the edge of one plate over that of the other, and then
soldering them together, or by folding the edges together with laps and
then soldering them. Similar joints are required when gores or other
pieces are to be inserted, and also at the junction by which a cylinder
is closed in. The usual method of forming laps, bends, or folds, for this
or other purposes, is to lay the plate over the edge of the bench and to
bend it by repeated strokes with a hammer; but a machine is sometimes
used for this purpose.

[Illustration: Straight Snips. Scotch Snips. Large Shears. Bent Snips.]

After a tin vessel has been rounded upon a block or mandril by striking
it with a wooden mallet, and the seams finished, all its exterior edges
are strengthened by bending a thick iron wire into the proper form,
applying it to what would otherwise be the raw edges of the metal, and
dexterously folding them over it with a hammer.

[Illustration: Two-handed Wrench. Soldering Pile. Pudding Stake. Punches.
Hatchet Stake. Tongs.]

A superior kind of tin ware, commonly known as block tin ware, is
carefully finished by beating or planishing with a polished steel
hammer upon a _metal stake_. The process of swaging is resorted to as a
ready means of producing grooved or ridged borders, or other embossed
ornaments. This process consists in striking the metal between two steel
dies or swages, the faces of which bear the desired pattern, and are
made counterparts of each other. Many ornamental articles are produced
by embossing or stamping tin plate, in the same manner as other metallic
sheets, with a fly-press or other machinery. Cheap coffin-plates are
manufactured at Birmingham in this way; and these and similar articles
are sometimes lacquered, painted, or japanned. Tin forms the principal
ingredients in various kinds of pewter and other white-metal alloys,
which are manufactured into domestic utensils by casting, stamping, and
other processes.

[Illustration: Chisels. Charcoal Stove. Polishing Anvil.]

Britannia metal is a mixture of tin, antimony, copper, and brass, which
is melted, cast into slabs, and rolled into sheets. The principal use
of this metal is for candlesticks, teapots, coffee-biggins, and other
vessels for containing liquids. The feet of candlesticks, the bodies
of teapots, and other articles containing embossed work, are stamped
between dies; while articles of a more globular shape are stamped in two
or more pieces, and afterwards soldered together. The sheet metal has
a ductility which enables it to be bent into various curved forms by
pressure on a model or core: this process is called _spinning_.

[Illustration: Funnel Stake. Punches. Horse. Punches. Bick Irons. Crease
Iron.]

Many small vessels, spoons, and other articles, are cast in an alloy
somewhat harder than that which is rolled into sheets. Most of the tools
employed by the Tinman are the _irons_, _stakes_, and _bickers_, on which
the tin is hammered into proper shape, with _shears_ for cutting, the
_punches_ for piercing holes, and the _soldering iron_ and _charcoal
stove_ for making joints.

[Illustration]




THE FARRIER.

[Illustration: FARRIER’S SHED.]


When we remember how usefully horses are employed for our advantage, how
generously and willingly they work, and how docile and obedient they
are when properly treated, we shall begin to see that the trade of the
Farrier is one which should be studied very carefully, and that nobody
should follow the business who has not become tolerably skilful. The
Farrier who shoes the horses, is very often consulted when those animals
are ill, so that he should have some knowledge of simple remedies in
cases when the veterinary surgeon lives at a distance, or is out of the
way. Especially the Farrier should thoroughly understand the construction
of the horse’s hoof, which, hard and simple as it may look, is very
delicate, and is composed of several important parts.

One thing should never be forgotten in shoeing a horse,—first that,
although the hoof is a hard horny covering, it has an inside portion
which is very tender and liable to be hurt; and secondly, that the hoof
itself expands as the weight of the horse presses upon it.

[Illustration: Anvil. Stool. Staple. Pointing Stake. Punch. Shoe.]

[Illustration: Nippers. Drawing Knife. Rasp. Buffer.]

The Farrier’s shed is fitted with a forge, or furnace where the iron is
heated, and in which the fire is blown to great heat by the huge bellows
fastened above it; it also contains an _anvil_, on which the _horseshoes_
are made or shaped, a _stool_ on which the Farrier sometimes sits to
examine a horse’s hoof, and _staples_ and _rings_, to which the horses’
heads are fastened by halters during the process of shoeing. When a horse
is taken to be shod, the Farrier should begin by taking off one of the
old shoes. He first raises the clenches with a tool called the _buffer_
and if the shoe does not then come off easily, loosens some of the nails
with the _punch_, till it can be gently removed. When the shoe is off he
rasps the edge of the hoof all round, and with the _nippers_ or pincers
takes out any stubs that may be left in the hoof. He then pares the hard
portions of the foot, and this is an operation which requires great care
and skill as well as a good deal of practice in the use of the _drawing
knife_. The Farrier must always remember the state of the roads when he
is paring the horse’s feet, for if the roads are dry and stony he must
take off very little of the horn, or the foot will be bruised.

[Illustration: Fulter. Damper. Slice. Pretchel. Swage. Tongs. Turning
Hammer.]

The horseshoes are frequently purchased by the Farrier of the Blacksmith
who makes them, but some Farriers are also Smiths, and both make and fit
the horseshoes. In either case the Farrier keeps a stock of rough shoes
which he alters at the time that they are wanted, so that they may fit
the horse, and one of the first things to be done is to make the groove
all round the shoe, and drill the holes in it for the nails. This groove,
in which the heads of the nails sink, is called the “fuller,” and the
tool with which it is made is also called the “_fuller_,” or “_fulter_.”
Having cut off the ends or heels of the shoe, made the fuller, and
opened the nail holes, the Farrier next makes what is called the “clip,”
which means turning up the toe of the shoe, to prevent its being forced
back on the hoof. In these parts of his work he has probably used the
_chisel_, _turning hammer_, _swage_ and _pretchel_, while for the work
at the forge he has had to employ the _poker_, the _tongs_ for holding
the shoe on the _anvil_, the _slice_ for taking small things from the
fire, and the _damper_, which is a wisp of wet straw held by wooden tongs
for lessening the heat of the shoe during hammering. He next begins to
fit the shoe, the horse being tied up to the staple in the wall of the
shed. The fitting of the shoe is an operation requiring the greatest care
and attention, and the good Farrier will spare no pains to do his work
perfectly, as many a valuable horse has been ruined by an ill-fitting
shoe. When the shoe is fitted it is “filed up,” by which all roughness is
removed from the edges of the nail holes, and the sharp edges of the shoe
itself are taken off.

[Illustration: Nail. Nail Bag. Shoeing Hammer.]

The Farrier generally makes his own _nails_ since they are of a peculiar
shape, and the heads should completely fill the nail holes, that they
may not allow the shoe to shift on the horse’s hoof. They are made from
long rods of iron called nail rods, and when finished are spread about
the smithy to cool, because when they are allowed to cool gradually they
become harder, and less liable to break.

If the nails are of a proper shape, the holes straight through the shoe,
and the shoe fits the foot, very little skill is required to nail it on,
and clench the ends of the nails to the hoof. Before the shoe is nailed
on, however, it is usual, when the horse has tender feet, to cover the
sole of the foot with leather, gutta-percha, or felt made waterproof,
“felt” being made of woollen cloth torn to shreds which are then pressed
together and formed into sheets. In any case the Farrier is expected to
“stop the foot,” that is, to fill the hollow and tender portion of the
foot within the shoe, with tow or oakum dipped in tar.

[Illustration: Fleam. Stamp. Scissors. Ladle and Spatula. Brush. Poker.
Reaching Iron.]

The shoe is now nailed on, and a good Farrier will often be able to
secure it with only five nails.

The hind shoes are of course different in shape to those which are placed
on the fore feet, and it is generally necessary to use seven nails to fix
them on to the hoofs, since the hind foot expands less than the fore, and
there is more drag upon it when the horse is in motion, so that the shoe
is more easily shifted.

The time at which a horse’s shoes want removing depends on several
causes. If a horse wear out his shoes in less than a month they had
better not be removed, but whether the shoes are worn or not the horse’s
hoofs should be looked to by the Farrier, every three or four weeks, as
the hoofs sometimes outgrow the shoes, and the shoes require refitting.

From what has been said about the Farrier’s business it will be seen that
it is a most important one, but besides the knowledge and experience
required for the more mechanical part of his work, he should also know
something of the diseases and ailments of horses, and be able to apply
the proper remedies.

It is true that this part of the business belongs properly to the
veterinary surgeon, but the Farrier should at all events understand what
is proper to be done in any ordinary disorder or in cases of emergency.
He will of course know how to use the _fleam_ when the animals require
bleeding, as they frequently do. This instrument is a sort of knife,
the sharp part of which is the small spade-shaped pieces at the ends of
the blades. The _ladle_ for melting the ingredients of ointment, for
sprains or swellings, and the _spatula_ for mixing it, or for spreading
and mixing the drugs for boluses or the large pills frequently given to
horses, are some of the instruments used in this part of the Farrier’s
business.




THE NEEDLE MAKER.

[Illustration: GRINDING NEEDLE POINTS.]


There is perhaps no implement of greater importance than that smallest
of all tools, the needle, and in all civilized countries the number of
needles consumed is so great, and such an enormous supply is required for
the sewing of the clothes of mankind, that the manufacture is one of the
most remarkable in this country, whence by far the greater part of the
whole supply is derived.

It will only be proper in this place for the author to acknowledge his
obligations to Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier, whose most useful little work on
“Common Objects” affords brief and reliable information on this as well
as on many other interesting subjects.

The material from which needles are made is soft steel wire of the
requisite degree of fineness. This is obtained from the manufacturer in
large coils, each containing sufficient wire to form several thousand
needles. These coils are first cut up into pieces of the length required
to make two needles, usually about three inches, large _shears_ being
used, capable of cutting a coil of one hundred wires.

[Illustration: Shears. Needles placed in iron rings. Soft Straight Liner.
Trowel for hardening.]

Five or six thousands of these lengths are made into a bundle kept
together by a ring of steel at each end. They are then heated to redness
in a furnace, and afterwards laid upon a flat iron plate, and rubbed
backwards and forwards with a steel bar until each wire is perfectly
straight.

The next stage is to grind a point at each end of the wire. This is done
by the aid of grindstones about eighteen inches in diameter and four
inches thick; they are made to revolve so rapidly that they are liable to
fly into pieces, and are therefore partially enclosed in iron plates to
avoid injury to the grinder, should such an accident occur. The grinder
takes from fifty to sixty wires between the thumb and forefinger of his
right hand; and as he presses them against the stone, he causes all the
wires to roll round, and thus each is ground to a point. So expert do the
grinders become by practice, that they point a handful of these wires,
usually about sixty, in half a minute, or about seven thousand in an
hour. During the grinding every wire gives out a stream of sparks, and
these together form a bright glare of light.

[Illustration: Rubbing.]

Pointing these wires is the most unhealthy part of the manufacture; the
fine dust is carried into the lungs of the workmen, and destroys them
in a few years, very few living beyond the age of forty. Wet grindstones
cannot be used, as the points of the needles would be rapidly rusted.

[Illustration: Drill for making the Eyes. Smooth File for rubbing.
Hammer. Cullender. Packet of Needles. Flat File.]

The wires thus pointed at each end are stamped by a heavy hammer, raised
by a lever moved by the workman’s foot. The under surface of this hammer
is so formed, that when it falls on the wire midway between the two
ends it stamps on one side the gutters, or grooves, in which the eye is
afterwards made; and the anvil on which the wire rests when the hammer
strikes it forms the two grooves on the opposite side. This stamping
also makes a slight depression or pit on each side at the spot intended
for the eye. The wires are then passed to a boy, who takes a number of
them in his left hand, whilst with his right he works a press, moving
two hard steel points or piercers. These come down upon the wire as it
is placed beneath them, and pierce the eyes for the two needles. Each
wire now resembles two rough unpolished needles united together by their
heads; and as it would require much trouble to divide them separately
into two needles, a number are threaded upon two very thin wires, and are
separated by filing and bending.

[Illustration: Hand Press for piercing the Eyes. Stamping.]

Any needles which may have been bent in the several processes are
straightened by rolling under a steel bar, and are hardened by heating
in a furnace, and suddenly cooled in cold water or oil. After hardening
they are tempered by being slightly heated, and if any are bent during
hardening, they are straightened by being hammered on anvils with small
hammers; finally, the whole are polished by laying twenty or thirty
thousand side by side upon a piece of thick canvas, smearing them with
oil and emery, rolling up the canvas, and rubbing them under a press for
several hours or even days.

[Illustration: Soft Straightening. Needles placed ready to be filed.
Needles in different Stages of Manufacture.]

Drilled-eyed needles undergo another operation—a fine _drill_ is made
to revolve rapidly in the eye of each, to take off the rough edge and
to prevent their cutting the thread when used; finally, the points are
finished on a revolving stone, and polished on a wheel covered with
leather, and enclosed in a paper for sale.

Simple as the construction of a needle may appear, it has to pass through
the hands of 120 workmen, from the time it leaves the iron mine until the
manufacture is completed.

The chief seat of the needle manufacture in this country is Redditch,
in Worcestershire, where upwards of seventy millions are made weekly.
English needles are far superior to those of foreign manufacture.

[Illustration]




THE CALENDERER AND HOTPRESSER.

[Illustration: MILL.]


The business of the Calenderer and Hotpresser in so many respects
resembles part of that already described as preceding the printing of
calico, that only a brief notice of it will be necessary. The singeing
and bleaching of the cotton has been explained, and calendering is the
name generally applied in the manufacturing districts to the processes
of smoothing, dressing, and glazing cotton and linen goods; the object
being either to prepare them for the operations of the calico printer,
or to impart the last finish to the goods before they are folded and
packed for the market. The earlier calenders, or calendering machines,
closely resembled a common mangle in their action, but were very large
and heavy, and worked by a horse-wheel or other sufficient power, but the
process was greatly improved by the invention of a machine in which the
pressure is produced between rollers, instead of between rollers and flat
surfaces, and in which consequently the alternating movement is got rid
of, and also it is easier to give a uniform and equal pressure.

[Illustration: Singeing Cotton Goods before Calendering. Iron Plate.
Roller. Windlass. Scissors. Tongs.]

[Illustration: Embossed Roller for Machine Printing. Presses.]

The rollers or cylinders were formerly made of wood; they are now
usually of paper or cast iron. The paper cylinders are formed by packing
a great number of circular pieces of stout pasteboard upon an iron
axis, and compressing them very tightly by means of iron bolts passed
through them, acting upon circular end-plates of cast iron. The surface
is brought to a perfectly even and polished state by turning in a
lathe. Iron rollers are made hollow and when necessary heated from the
inside. When a glazed or polished surface is required on the goods to
be calendered, mechanism is employed to cause two adjacent rollers to
revolve with different velocities, so as to produce a rubbing action.

[Illustration: Printing Press. Chair with Rollers. Tin Block.]

The _furnace_ for heating the _rollers_, the _chair with rollers_, the
_presses_ and _tin blocks_ for hotpressing, and the _windlass_ for
turning, are easily understood in relation to this trade. The _printing
press_ and _embossed cylinder_ have been mentioned in the trade of calico
printing. The _mill_, turned by a horse, is used where steam power is not
employed to put the machinery in motion.

[Illustration: Furnace.]




THE CUTLER AND FILE-CUTTER.

[Illustration: GRINDING.]


Amongst all the trades that occupy the attention of mankind, that of the
Cutler, which also includes the tool maker, is certainly one of the most
essential, since without tools no other manufactures could be carried on.
Cutting instruments of various kinds have been in use from the earliest
ages, if for no other purposes, for cutting food, slaughtering animals,
and making war upon each other. In ancient times, as well as amongst some
barbarous tribes at the present day, these implements were frequently
made of shells, edged flints, or hardened wood, fashioned into sharp
weapons; at a late period, cutting as well as warlike instruments were
formed of brass or bronze; but at the present time, in all civilized
nations they are formed exclusively of steel or iron.

Steel is formed from the purest bar iron—that which comes from the
Swedish mines being preferred. This is buried in powdered charcoal and
heated to whiteness for several days, without exposure to the air; during
this time the metal becomes much harder, whiter in colour, crystalline in
texture, and blistered on the surface. The blistered steel so produced is
prepared for use, either by binding several bars together and hammering
them into one, or by melting them in earthenware pots, called crucibles,
and pouring the melted metal into moulds of the size required. In the
latter state it is called cast steel.

Cutlery is generally understood to comprise all kinds of knives, razors,
lancets, and edge tools, including scythes, saws, scissors, shears,
spades, and many others; and the manufacture of forks, files, and some
other instruments not possessing cutting edges, is frequently included in
the business. It will be impossible to give a detailed description of how
all these are made, so only two or three must be selected. In a Cutler’s
factory knife blades are forged from steel bars in a number of small
rooms, each containing a fireplace or hearth, a trough to hold water, and
another trough for coke, which is specially prepared for this kind of
work; there are also an _anvil_, _hammers_, and some other tools.

[Illustration: Cutler’s Hammers. Anvil.]

Two persons are engaged in each room, one being called the maker or
forger, the other the striker. The forger buries the end of the steel
bar in the fire to the extent required; and to determine when it should
be removed requires some judgment, since if it be overheated or “burnt,”
it will be quite unfit for cutting purposes. On the other hand, it must
be sufficiently heated to acquire the proper degree of softness for the
operation of shaping the blade from it. When the end of the bar has been
properly heated it is brought to the anvil, where it is fashioned by the
striker into the required shape by means of a few blows of the hammer.
This roughly shaped blade is then cut off from the end of the bar, which
is again heated for forming the next shape, and so on to the end.

The cutting part of the blade thus rudely formed is next welded to a
piece of iron, which forms the bolster, or _shoulder_, that is, the
part that rises round the handle of the knife. To make the shoulder of
the size and shape required, and to give it neatness and finish, it is
introduced into a _die_ by the side of the anvil, and a _swage_ (_see
Blacksmith_) placed upon it, to which a few smart blows in the proper
direction are given by the striker.

[Illustration: Shoulder-iron.]

The die and swage are called _prints_ by the workpeople. Besides the
bolster, the part which fastens into the handle, technically termed
the _tang_, is also shaped from the piece of iron welded on to the
cutting part of the blade. After the bolster and tang have been properly
finished, the blade is heated again, and then well hammered on the anvil.
This operation, which is termed _smithing_, requires particular care and
attention. It is intended to consolidate the steel, and to render it
brighter. The next process the blade has to undergo is that of _marking_.
This is done with a broad punch made of the very best and hardest steel,
and having the name and corporate or trade mark of the firm carved on
the bottom end or point. The blade is heated to a dull red (worm-red,
as it is termed by the workmen), and the mark cut in on one side of
the blade with the punch by a single blow of the hammer. Now comes the
most important process of all, viz. the hardening and tempering of the
blades. Upon the effectual performance of these operations depends the
practical value of the articles. The Sheffield workmen have justly and
deservedly acquired the very highest reputation for peculiar skill in
this most difficult department of the cutlery business. The hardening of
the blade is effected by heating it to bright redness, then plunging it
perpendicularly into cold water, which operation renders it extremely
hard, but at the same time very brittle, which is an inconvenience,
of course, requiring to be remedied. This is done by the process of
tempering. To this end, the hardened blades are first rubbed with finely
powdered sand, to remove scales, &c. from the surface; they are then
placed on an oblong tray made of steel, and on this exposed to the fire
until they acquire a bright blue tint. The workman judges of the proper
degree of tempering entirely by the colour, and the utmost attention is
bestowed upon this point to ensure the most perfect unanimity in this
respect. The hardened and tempered blades are then submitted to the
manager’s inspection, who applies various tests to them, and rejects any
that may turn out imperfect in any one point.

The blades that have been examined and passed by the manager are next
taken to the grinding mill, or, as it is technically termed, the _wheel_.
Each separate shop in the building in which the grinders work is called
a _hull_. The grinding is done on stones of various qualities and sizes,
according to the kind of articles to be ground. The rough grit stones
come mostly from Wickersley, near Rotherham; the finer and smoother
grained stones, and the so-called _whitning_ stones, come mostly from the
more immediate neighbourhood of Sheffield. The blades of table-knives
are ground on wet stones, the grinding stone being suspended, for that
purpose, in an iron trough filled with water to a sufficient height
to make the surface of the fluid just touch the face of the stone. The
grinding stones, as well as the glazers and polishers, are turned by
machinery worked by steam power. A _flat stick_ is used by the grinder
to keep the blade pressed to the surface of the stone. The ground blades
are then glazed, which simply means that a higher degree of lustre and
smoothness is given them by grinding on a tool termed a _glazer_. This
consists of a wheel made of a number of pieces of wood, put together
in such a manner that the edge or face always presents the end way of
the wood, which is done to preserve the circular shape by preventing
contraction of the parts. The grinding face of the wheel is covered with
so-called emery cake, which consists of a composition of beeswax, tallow,
and emery. The glazing wheels have a diameter of four feet. The tang of
the blade is stuck into a temporary handle to facilitate the operation.

[Illustration: Grindstones. Chisel. Buskin. Flat File or Rasp. Gauge.]

The last process to which the blades of table-knives are subjected in the
grinding mill is that of polishing; this is done on circular pieces of
wood covered with buff leather, with a coat of finer emery (flour emery)
composition upon it, which are made to revolve with much less velocity
than the grinding stones and the glazers. The ground blades are again
taken to the manager, who applies several very severe tests to them, to
try their temper and edge.

[Illustration: Shears. Flat Stick. Haft Moulds.]

Knife-handles are made of horn, ivory, ebony, silver, German silver,
mother of pearl, &c. Two sorts of ivory are principally used, the
Egyptian and the African; the latter is the more beautiful and
transparent of the two, the Egyptian looking more like horn. The tusks
are sawn in appropriate lengths, which are then cut by a small circular
saw into handles of the required size. The handles are properly filed,
and occasionally also carved or fluted in different patterns. A variety
of files are used for these purposes, such as flat files, threading
files, hollow files, half round files, &c. The handle is then bored to
receive the tang. The bolster of the blade having been properly filed,
the tang is inserted into the bore, and fixed in by cement in the usual
way. It is afterwards farther secured by a German silver pin passing
through the handle and tang.

The silver and German silver handles are stamped in dies. The mother of
pearl handles are carved or fluted in different patterns.

[Illustration: Fire-irons. Crooked Tongs. Tongs. Dies.]

The knives thus finished by the hafter are now taken once more to the
manager, to undergo a final examination preparatory to their removal to
the warehouse.

The forging of razors is performed by a foreman and striker in the same
manner as in making the blades of table-knives. The bars or rods as they
come from the tilt and rolling mill are about half an inch broad, and
no thicker than is sufficient for the back of the razor. The anvil on
which the razor-blades are forged is rounded at the sides; by dexterously
working the blade on the rounded edge of the anvil, a concave surface is
given to the sides, and the edge part thus made thinner, which saves the
grinder a deal of labour. The blade having been cut off the bar, the tang
is formed by drawing out the steel. The blade is then properly hardened
and tempered. The last and most important process which the razor-blade
has to undergo is that of grinding.

The difference in the prices of blades, make all of them of the same
material, is owing entirely to the circumstance that stones of much
smaller diameter are used for grinding the higher priced blades, and much
more time and labour are given to the operation than is the case with the
cheaper sorts.

In making a fork, the end of a steel bar is first made red-hot; it is
hammered so as to give a rough approximation to the shape of the shank
or tang; it is again heated, and a blow from a die or stamp gives the
proper contour; the prongs are cut out by a powerful blow from a stamp of
peculiar form, and the fork is finally annealed, hardened, ground, and
polished. It is this process of fork grinding which has so often been
made a subject for comment; the fork is ground _dry_ upon a stone wheel,
and the particles of steel and grit are constantly entering the lungs of
the workmen, thereby ruining the health and shortening the duration of
life.

Many contrivances have been devised for obviating this evil, but the
fork-grinders have not seconded these efforts so zealously as might have
been expected.

In making pen and pocket-knives, a slender rod of steel is heated at the
end, hammered to the form of a blade, and carried through many subsequent
processes. But the putting together of these hinged knives requires more
time than the making of the blades, and affords a curious example of
minute detail. When the pieces of bone, ivory, pearl, tortoise-shell,
horn, or other substances, which are to form the outer surface of the
handle, are roughly cut to shape; when the blade has been forged and
ground, and when the steel for the spring is procured, the whole are
placed in the hand of a workman, who proceeds to build up a clasp-knife
from the little fragments placed at his disposal. So many are the details
to be attended to, that a common two-bladed knife has to pass through his
hands seventy or eighty times before it is finished.

A file, as every one knows, is a steel instrument, having flat or curved
surfaces so notched or serrated as to produce a series of fine teeth or
cutting edges, which are employed for the abrasion of metal, ivory, wood,
&c.

Steel for making files being required to be of unusual hardness, is more
highly converted than for other purposes, and is sometimes said to be
_double converted_. Small files are mostly made of cast steel. The very
large files called _smiths’ rubbers_ are generally forged immediately
from the converted bars. Smaller files are forged from bars which are
wrought to the required form and size by the action of tilt-hammers,
either from blistered bars or from ingots of cast steel. These bars are
cut into pieces suitable for making one file each, which are heated in
a forge-fire, and then wrought to the required shape on an anvil by two
men, one of whom superintends the work while the other acts as general
assistant.

The next operation upon the blanks which are to be converted into files
is that of _softening_ or _lightening_, to render the steel capable of
being cut with the toothing instruments. This is effected by a gradual
heating and a gradual cooling. The surface is then rendered smooth,
either by filing or grinding.

[Illustration: File Cutting. File Cutting.]

The cutting of the teeth is usually performed by workmen sitting astride
upon a board or saddle-shaped seat in front of a bench, upon which is
fixed a kind of small anvil. Laying the blank file across the anvil, the
Cutler secures it from moving by a strap which passes over each end and
under his feet, like the stirrup of the shoemaker. He then takes in his
left hand a very carefully ground chisel made of the best steel, and in
his right a peculiarly shaped hammer. If the file be flat, or have one
or more flat surfaces, the operator places the steel chisel upon it at a
particular angle or inclination, and with one blow of the hammer cuts an
indentation or furrow completely across its face from side to side, and
then moves the chisel to the requisite positions for making similar and
parallel cuts. If it be a half round file, as a straight-edged chisel
is used, a number of small cuts are necessary to extend across the file
from edge to edge. So minute are these cuts in some kinds of files, that
in one specimen about ten inches long, flat on one side and round on the
other, there are more than 20,000 cuts, each made with a separate blow
from the hammer, and the cutting tool being shifted after each blow. The
range of manufactures afford few more striking examples of the peculiar
manual skill acquired by long practice.

Several highly ingenious machines have been contrived for superseding
the tedious operation of file cutting by hand; but suited as the process
may appear to be for the use of machinery, it has been found to present
such great difficulties, that we believe no file-cutting engine has been
brought successfully or extensively into operation. One very serious
difficulty arises from the fact that, if one part of the file be either
a little softer than the adjacent parts, or a little narrower, so as to
present less resistance to the blow of the hammer, a machine would, owing
to the perfect uniformity of its stroke, make a deeper cut there than
elsewhere.

After the files have been cut, the steel is brought to a state of great
hardness; this is effected in various ways, according to the purpose to
which the file is to be applied; they are generally coated with a sort of
temporary varnish, then heated in a stove, and then suddenly quenched.
After hardening, the files are scoured, washed, dried, and tested.

It will be seen that the tools employed by the Cutler are few, and
consist mostly of the hammers, moulds, dies, anvils, grinding stones, and
others already mentioned.

[Illustration]




COTTON MANUFACTURER.

[Illustration: CARDING.]


The extremely valuable substance, called Cotton, which is now raised
in such abundance as to furnish the cheapest and most extensively-used
clothing, is produced in the seed vessels of the cotton plant, of which
there are many varieties; some are herbaceous annual plants, growing from
eighteen to twenty-four inches high; others, shrubs about the size of our
currant bushes, and of from two to ten years’ duration; whilst a third
kind attain the growth of small trees, with a height of from twelve to
twenty feet.

The leaves of the cotton plant are of a bright dark green colour, deeply
divided into five lobes; the flowers are large and showy, of a bright
sulphur or lemon colour, and closely resemble in appearance and botanical
structure those of the single hollyhock; each flower is succeeded by
a triangular three-celled seed vessel, which attains the size of a
small walnut, and when ripe bursts open from the swelling of the cotton
contained in the three cells; the seeds, which are rather larger than
those of grapes, are inclosed in the cotton wool, which adheres very
firmly to them. One variety of cotton, cultivated in China, and some
parts of America, has a yellow tint; this tint it preserves when woven
into the fabric called “nankeen.”

[Illustration: Cotton Plant. Bale of Cotton.]

The cotton plant is largely cultivated in India, China, United States,
West Indies, on the shores of the Mediterranean, and, in short, in almost
all the warmer parts of the world; it flourishes readily in soils too
poor for the growth of grain, and other crops, and succeeds perfectly
well in dry seasons.

The cotton, when perfectly ripe, is gathered by women and children, the
seeds and wool being picked out of the pod; it is dried in the sun, and
is then ready for the removal of the seeds. In India this operation is
performed by means of two parallel rollers, which are fixed in a frame at
a small distance apart, so that when they are turned round the cotton is
drawn through whilst the seeds, which from their size are unable to pass,
are torn off and separated. With this simple machine a man can separate
the seeds from about fifty pounds of cotton in a day.

In America a still more rapid process is adopted: the cotton is placed
in a box, one side of which is formed of stout parallel wires, placed
about one-eighth of an inch apart; by the side of this box is a roller,
carrying a number of circular saws with curved teeth, which project
through the wires into the box. On the roller being made to revolve, the
teeth of the saws drag the cotton through the wires, the seeds remaining
behind; after being thus separated, the cotton is powerfully compressed
into bags, and is ready for transport to this and other manufacturing
countries.

The cotton is seldom unpacked until it arrives at the mill, the purchases
being all managed by samples. When it is unpacked, the first thing to
be done is the sorting, and in this much care and skill are required;
for the different bags furnish different qualities of cotton, and it is
necessary to produce yarn of uniform quality at the cheapest rate.

In order, therefore, to equalize the different qualities, the contents
of all the bags are mixed together in the following manner. A space
being cleared and marked out on the floor, the cotton contained in the
first bag is scattered over this space, so as exactly to cover it; the
contents of the second bag are in like manner spread over the first, and
the cotton in all the other bags is disposed in a similar manner; men and
boys tread down the heap, which is called a _bing_ or _bunker_, until at
length it rises up in shape and dimensions very much like a haystack.
Whenever a supply of cotton is taken from the bing it is torn down with
a rake from top to bottom, by which means it is evident the contents of
the different bags are collected together in a mass of uniform quality
and colour. In mixing different qualities of cotton it is usual to bring
together such only as have a similar length of staple. A portion of the
waste cotton of the mill is also mixed in the bing, for making the lower
qualities of yarn. For higher numbers, as well as for warps, a finer
quality of cotton must be selected; and thus it will be seen that the
formation of a bing is an important operation, the quality of the goods
produced depending upon it.

In this state the cotton contains sand, dirt, and other impurities, and
the fibres are matted together by the pressure they were subjected to
in packing. To open the fibres and get rid of the sand, &c. the cotton
is put into a machine called a _willow_. This consists of a box or
case, containing a conical wooden beam, studded over with iron spikes;
this beam is made to turn round five or six hundred times a minute.
The cotton, as it is torn down from the bing, is put in at one end of
the machine, where it is caught by the spikes, tossed about with great
violence, and gradually driven forward to the other end. The sand and
other impurities fall out of the machine through an open grating at the
bottom; the dust and lighter matter pass off through a series of wire
openings, and the cleaned cotton is sent down a shoot into the room below.

If the cotton is of fine quality it is beaten, or _batted_, with hazel
or holly twigs. For this purpose, it is spread on a frame, the upper
part of which is made of cords and is quite elastic. A woman, with a rod
about three or four feet long in each hand, beats the cotton with great
violence, and so entirely separates the fibre. Any loose impurities which
remain fall out between the cords; seeds and fragments of seed-pods,
which adhere to the cotton somewhat firmly, are picked out by hand.
By this method the cotton is thoroughly opened, and made quite clean,
without injuring the staple.

[Illustration: Opening the Cotton.]

The coarser qualities are passed at once from the willow to the
_scutching_ or _blowing machine_, which does the work of batting, only in
a more violent manner, and is therefore not adapted for fine qualities;
but in coarser spinning is in general use, to prepare the cotton for the
carding engine.

The cotton, which is still in a confused and tangled state, has now to
be carded, upon the regularity and perfection of which process depends
much of the success of spinning, and also the durability and beauty of
the stuff to be woven. A cotton card is a sort of brush, containing wires
instead of bristles. The cards are made of bands or fillets of leather,
or are formed of alternate layers of cotton, linen, and india-rubber
pierced with numerous holes, in which are fixed bent pieces of iron wire,
called dents or teeth.

The fibres of the cotton are not yet sufficiently level to be twisted
into yarn; and it often happens that the teeth of the card lay hold of
a fibre by the middle and thus double it together, in which state it is
unfit for spinning.

The cardings are therefore doubled and drawn out by a machine called a
_drawing frame_, the principle of which depends upon different pairs
of rollers revolving with different degrees of rapidity. If, however,
the riband, as it leaves the carding-engine, were simply extended in
length by drawing it out, it would be liable to tear across, or to be of
a different thickness at different parts of its length. To prevent the
tearing and to equalize the thickness, a number of cardings are joined
together and drawn out to a length equal to the sum of the length of all
the separate cardings.

The effect produced is the same as taking a piece of cotton wool between
the finger and thumb and drawing it out many times, laying the drawn
filaments over each other, before each drawing. If the cotton be then
examined it will be found that all the fibres are parallel and of equal
length. This effect is accomplished very perfectly in the drawing frame,
which consists of a number of rollers arranged in what are called
_heads_, each head consisting of three pairs of rollers, of which the
second pair moves with greater speed than the first, and the third moves
quicker than the second.

[Illustration: Drawing. Thread Frame.]

By the process of doubling and drawing, the cotton is formed into a
loose porous cord, the fibres of which are arranged side by side. This
cord is still too thick for yarn, but it cannot be reduced in size by
drawing merely, for if this were attempted it would break; a slight twist
is therefore given, which by condensing the fibres allows the drawing
to proceed. This is the commencement of the spinning process (which is,
in fact, little more than a combination of drawing and twisting) and is
called _roving_.

[Illustration: Cotton Bobbins. Buffaloes with Bobbins. Roving.]

The bobbin-and-fly frame is an exceedingly complicated machine, although
the objects to be accomplished by it are sufficiently simple; namely, to
give the roving a slight twist, and then to wind it on the bobbin. The
first is easily done by the revolutions of the spindle; the second is
more difficult. It is scarcely necessary to explain that the bobbins now
under notice differ in no way from the reels in common use, except in
being of very large size. The spindle which holds the bobbin is a round
steel rod, driven by a small cog-wheel, fastened on the lower part of
the spindle. The bobbin is slid upon the spindle, and the small bed or
platform on which it rests is made to revolve by another series of small
wheels. The spindle has two arms, called the _fly_ or _flyer_. This fly
is fixed on the top of the spindle in such a way that it can be taken off
in an instant, for the purpose of putting on or taking off the bobbin.
One arm of the fly is hollow, the other solid, and all this serves to
balance the machinery. One machine contains from thirty to a hundred and
twenty spindles, which, for economy of space, are placed in two rows,
each spindle in the back row standing opposite the space left between two
spindles of the front row. The action of the machine is this:—The sliver
having been drawn by the rollers, is twisted by the rapid revolutions
of the spindle into a soft cord or roving; this enters a hole in the top
of the spindle, and passes down the hollow arm of the fly; it is then
twisted round a steel finger, which winds it on the bobbin with a certain
pressure.

[Illustration: Throstle. Flyer.]

The _throstle machine_ is usually made double, a row of bobbins,
spindles, &c. occupying each side of the frame. The bobbins filled with
rovings from the bobbin-and-fly frame, are mounted at the upper part of
the frame in two ranges. The roving from each bobbin passes through three
pairs of drawing rollers, where it is stretched out to the requisite
fineness. On quitting the last pair of rollers, each thread is guided by
a little ring or a notch of smooth glass, let into the frame, towards the
spindles, which revolve with great rapidity, producing by the motion of
their flyers through the air a low musical hum, which is supposed to have
given the name of throstle to this machine. The roving, which may now be
called yarn, passing through an eyelet formed at the end of one of the
arms of the flyer, proceeds at once to other bobbins.

The yarn is wound upon the bobbins by a curious contrivance. The bobbin
fits very loosely upon the spindle, and rests on its end upon a kind of
platform. The bobbin is not connected with the spindle, except by the
thread of yarn, which has to be wound; therefore, as soon as the flyer
is set spinning, the thread drags the bobbin after it, and makes it
follow the motion of the spindle and fly; but the weight of the bobbin,
and its friction on the platform, which is promoted by covering the end
with coarse cloth, causes it to hang back, and thus the double purpose is
served, of keeping the thread stretched and winding it on the bobbin much
more slowly than the flyer revolves. The yarn is equally distributed on
the bobbin by a slow up-and-down movement of the platform.

[Illustration: Mule.]

These effects are the same as were produced by the bobbin and fly-frame,
but in the throstle they are attained by simpler means. In the former
machine a distinct movement caused the bobbin to revolve quicker than the
spindle. In the throstle the bobbin is made to revolve by the pull of the
yarn, which is now sufficiently strong for the purpose; but the roving
in the bobbin-and-fly frame would not bear the strain. The throstle is
not often employed for very fine spinning, because fine yarn would not
bear the drag of the bobbin; but in mule-spinning the yarn is wound at
once upon the spindles without any strain. In the _mule_ the rolling
is first drawn by the usual system of rollers, and then stretched by a
moveable carriage. The effect of first drawing and then stretching is to
make the yarn finer and more uniform, as will be explained presently.
The spinning mule is the most interesting and impressive spectacle in a
large cotton mill—on account of its vast extent, the great quantity of
work performed by it, and the wonderful complication and ingenuity of its
parts.

The spinning-mule consists of two principal portions: the first, which
is fixed, contains the bobbins of rovings and the drawing rollers; the
second is a sort of carriage, moving upon an iron railroad, and capable
of being drawn out to a distance of about five feet from the fixed frame.
This carriage carries the spindles, the number of which is half that
of the bobbins of rovings. Motion is given to the spindles by means of
vertical drums, round which are passed slender cords, communicating with
the spindles. There is one drum to every twenty-four spindles.

The carriage being run up to the point from which it starts in spinning,
the spindles are near to the roller-beam; the rollers now begin to turn,
and to give out yarn, which is immediately twisted by the revolution of
the spindles; the carriage then moves away from the roller-beam, somewhat
quicker than the threads are delivered, so that they receive a certain
amount of stretching, which gives value to this machine. The beneficial
effect is produced in this way,—when the thread leaves the rollers, it
is thicker in some parts than in others, and those thicker parts not
being so much twisted as the thinner ones are softer, and yield to the
stretching power of the mule, so that the twist is equalised throughout,
and the yarn becomes more uniform. When the carriage has _completed_ a
_stretch_, or is drawn out from about fifty-four to sixty-four inches
from the roller-beam, the drawing rollers cease to give out yarn, but
the spindles continue to whirl until the threads are properly twisted.
In spinning the finer yarns, the carriage sometimes makes what is called
a _second stretch_, during which the spindles are made to revolve much
more rapidly than before. The drawing, stretching, and twisting, of a
length of thread being thus completed, the mule disengages itself from
the parts of the machinery by which it has hitherto been driven, and the
spinner then pushes the carriage with his knee back to the roller-beam,
turning at the same time with his right hand a fly wheel, which gives
motion to the spindles. At the same time a copping wire, as it is called,
is pressed upon the threads by the spinners’ left hand, and they are thus
made to traverse the whole length of the spindle, upon which they are
then wound or _built_ in a conical form, which is called a _cop_. These
cops are used for placing in the _shuttle_ in weaving, and form the weft
or short cross threads of the cloth.

[Illustration: Machinery for moving Shuttle. Shuttle for Power Loom.]

The yarn is now disposed of in various ways, according to the use for
which it is intended; but it is often found convenient to make it up into
hanks. When the yarn is completed it is usually sent to the doubling
and twisting mill, for the purpose of being converted into what is now
properly called thread. Although we are accustomed to apply the word
thread to a thin narrow line of any fibrous material, the manufacturer
limits the term to that compound cord produced by doubling or twisting
two or more single lines. The single line he calls yarn, two or more
single lines, laid parallel and twisted together, he calls thread; and
of this there are many varieties, such as _bobbin-net-lace_-thread,
stocking-thread, sewing-thread, &c.

[Illustration: Gassing.]

In fine spinning, the yarn, when doubled, is for some purposes _singed_
or _gassed_, in order to get rid of the loose fibres, and to make it
more level and compact. The process of singeing yarn strikes a stranger
as being more remarkable than anything else in the mill. In a long room
in the upper part of the mill, or in a shed attached to it, are several
tables, lighted up with a large number of jets of flame, about twelve
inches apart, producing a singular but pleasing effect. Above each flame
is a little hood or chimney. On entering this room the smell of burnt
cotton is immediately perceived, and on approaching the table, one is
surprised to see a fine delicate thread crossing each flame in two or
three directions, and apparently at rest; but on following the course of
this thread, it is found to proceed from one bobbin, which is rapidly
spinning round, and to pass through the flame to another bobbin, which
is also in rapid motion. It is then seen that the thread is also moving
at a rapid rate, by which means alone does it escape being consumed. The
thread is led over pulleys, so as to pass two or three times through the
flame, which singes off the loose fibres, converting them into a reddish
powder or dust, which, if blown about and inhaled, would do great injury
to the lungs; this is why the gassing-room is in a remote or retired part
of the building, to prevent the air being disturbed by the bustle of the
heavier parts.

[Illustration: Warping Machines.]

When cotton is intended to be woven into a fabric, such as calico, &c.
the first operation consists in laying the requisite number of threads
together to form the width of the cloth; this is called _warping_.
Supposing there to be 1,000 threads in the width of a piece of cloth,
then the yarn, wound on the bobbins as it leaves the hands of the
spinner, must be so unwound and laid out as to form 1,000 lengths,
constituting, when laid parallel, the warp of the intended cloth. The
ancient method was to draw out the warp from the bobbins at full length
on an open field (and this is still practised in India and China), but
the _warping-frame_ is now employed, in which the threads are arranged,
by means of a frame turning on an upright centre. When the warp is
arranged round this machine, the warper takes it off and winds it on a
stick into a ball, preparatory to the process of beaming or winding it
on the beam of the loom. The threads in this latter process are wound
as evenly as possible on the beam; a separator, ravel, or comb being
used to lay them parallel, and to spread them out to about the intended
width of the cloth. Arrangements are then made for _drawing_ or attaching
the warp-threads individually to certain mechanism of the loom. In this
process all the threads are attached to stays fixed to two frames, called
_treadles_, in such a manner that all the alternate threads (1st, 3d,
5th,) can be drawn up or down by one heddle, and all the rest (2d, 4th,
6th, &c.) by the other.

There are three movements attending every thread of weft which the weaver
throws across the warp. In the first place he presses down one of the
two _treadles_, by which one of the two heddles is depressed, thereby
forming a kind of opening called the _shed_. Into this shed, at the
second movement, he throws the shuttle, containing the weft-thread, with
sufficient force to drive it across the whole web. Then at the third
movement he grasps the _batten_, which is a kind of frame, carrying at
its lower edge a comb-like piece, having as many teeth as there are
threads in the warp, and with this he drives up the thread of weft close
to those previously thrown. One thread of weft is thus completed, and
the weaver proceeds to throw another in a similar way, but in a reverse
order, that is, by depressing the left treadle instead of the right,
and by throwing the shuttle from left to right, instead of from right
to left. In the commonest mode of weaving the shuttle is thrown by both
hands alternately; but, about a century ago, John Kay invented the
_fly-shuttle_, in which a string and handle are so placed that the weaver
can work the shuttle both ways with one hand.

[Illustration: Weaving by hand.]

In 1678 M. de Gennes invented a rude kind of weaving-machine, intended
to increase the power of the common loom; and other looms were invented,
which were to be worked by a winch, by water power, or by some
contrivance more expeditious than common hand-weaving; but a greater step
in advance was made by the invention of Dr. Cartwright’s _power-loom_
in 1785. One cause which delayed the adoption of power-looms was the
necessity for stopping the machine frequently, in order to dress the warp
with paste or size as it unrolled from the beam, which operation required
a person to be employed for each loom, so that there was no saving of
expense. But the successive inventions of Radcliffe, Horrocks, Marsland,
Roberts, and others, have since brought the dressing-machine and the
power-loom to a high state of efficiency.

[Illustration: Power Loom.]

Taking a piece of calico as the representative of plain fabrics
generally, the mode of proceeding in power-loom factories may be shortly
sketched as follows. The warping-frame is so arranged as to be worked
by steam-power, and to bring the yarns into a parallel layer, which
is transferred to the dressing-machine. This latter is a large piece
of mechanism, in which the threads dip into paste on their way to the
warp-beam: undergoing a process of brushing after the dipping. After this
dressing the drawing and mounting for the loom are attended to. When the
warp is properly arranged in the loom, steam-power does all the rest;
it forms the shed or division of the warp into two parts, it throws the
shuttle, it drives up the weft with the batten, it unwinds the warp from
the warp-roller, and winds the woven material on the cloth-roller.

[Illustration: Spinning by hand.]




THE TAILOR.

[Illustration: WORKSHOP.]


It would perhaps be too much to say that the more civilized a nation
becomes, the greater is the attention bestowed upon dress; since it has
happened that in countries not very far removed from barbarism, vast
importance has been given to external display, and robes and trappings
have been used to cover the savagery which had only just learned to
delight in the pomp and magnificence of costly ornaments. It is certain,
however, that in all civilized nations dress is more than mere clothing,
and has a significance beyond the mere utility of protecting the body
from cold or heat, and adding to our physical comfort. It is an old
saying that some people may be clothed, but that they are never dressed;
and the meaning of this is, that dress is frequently an expression of
character, and will even make known the disposition of the wearer. In the
same way a change of _fashion_ is often an indication of an alteration in
the manners and way of living of a whole nation.

It is the business of the Tailor, then, not only to make garments, but to
study the prevailing fashion, and, indeed, to advise what alterations or
slight differences in the cut and colour of clothes will be best suited
to different people, since on the way in which our clothes are made our
personal appearance will very greatly depend, and personal appearance is
of no little importance, since there are few people who are not strongly
influenced by it.

The trade of the Tailor is one of which very little can be said in the
way of explanation, since it mainly consists in cutting out cloth to the
shapes necessary to be applied to each other in order to make the various
garments; and as this cannot be described without numerous _diagrams_,
and even with them could not easily be understood, we must be satisfied
to quote the instructions of a practical Tailor on the subject of
sewing.[3]

    [3] From the Industrial Library.

And, first as to the different sorts of stitches, which are:—the
basting-stitch, the back and fore-stitch, the back-stitch, the
side-stitch, and the fore-stitch; also the back pricking-stitch, the
fore pricking-stitch, the serging-stitch, the cross-stitch, and the
button-hole-stitch; besides which there is a distinct kind of stitch
for hemming, filling, stotting, rantering, fine-drawing, prick-drawing,
over-casting, and also for making what are called covered buttons.

The basting-stitch is a long and slight stitch, intended to be merely
temporary, or to fasten together some of the inner and concealed parts of
the garment. It is commonly used to keep the work in its proper position
while being sewed.

[Illustration: Sleeve Board.]

The back and fore-stitch is made, as the name implies, by the union of
back stitching and fore stitching; in this stitch the needle is first
put through the cloth, and turned up in as short a space as is possible,
so as to make a neat and strong stitch when completed; it is then put
through the cloth again in the same place as at first, and again turned
up, taking care that it passes through the cloth as nearly as possible
within the same space as before. This being done, the first back-stitch
is completed. The second stitch is made by passing the needle forward
upon the surface of the cloth, but without taking hold of it, over a
space equal to the length of the first stitch; the needle is again put
through the cloth, turned up, and brought back to the place where it was
last put through, so as to form another back-stitch; which is followed
by another putting of the needle forward, or, in plainer terms, another
fore-stitch, and so on in the same order, until the seam is finished.
This kind of stitch is used for sewing linings, pockets, flannel
garments, and other thin fabrics. There is no need to say much respecting
the back-stitch, as this may be understood from what is said above
respecting the first stitch in back and fore-stitching. This stitch is
used for seams where strength is required; it is also used for ornament
instead of the side-stitch, but in this case it must be very neatly and
regularly made.

[Illustration: Goose. Flat Iron. French Chalk. Thimble. Measure Book.
Rule.]

The side-stitch is used for the edges of garments, to keep them from
rolling over, or from being drawn out of shape. It is always intended
for ornament as well as use, and requires a very quick eye and a careful
hand to do it well. In this stitch the needle is put through the cloth
a little above or below the place from which it came out in the former
stitch, but it must be at a very little distance from this place, or
the sewing-silk will be visible on the surface of the cloth, which is a
great blemish, and yet it must be far enough away from where it came out
to prevent its breaking through, in which case the stitch is lost both
as to use and ornament. Care must also be taken that the stitches are at
regular distances from each other, and that the whole of them are placed
at the same distance from the edge of the cloth. In the fore-stitch, as
has been already hinted, the needle, when drawn out from the seam, is
always put forward, so that an equal quantity of thread, or a stitch of
the same length, is visible on each side of the cloth.

Serge-stitching is done by passing the needle through the cloth from
the under to the upper piece, throwing the thread over the edges of the
cloth, so as to keep them closely together. It is also used to join
selvages together, as also to prevent taking up more space for seams than
can be spared, when the pieces are barely large enough for the required
purpose. It is not, however, much used by tailors, except when no great
degree of strength is required.

The cross-stitch is formed by two parallel rows of stitches, so placed as
that the stitch in the upper row is opposite to the vacant space in the
lower one, the thread passing from one stitch to the other in diagonal
lines. It is used for keeping open the seams of such garments as require
washing, and also for securing the edges from ravelling out in such
fabrics as are too loosely made to allow of their edges being fastened
down by the filling-stitch.

In the button-hole-stitch the needle is first put through the cloth from
the inner to the outer surface, and before it is drawn out the twist is
passed round the point of the needle, and kept in that position till the
needle be drawn out to the full length of the twist; this forms a kind of
loop, called by Tailors the “purl,” at the top or edge of the opening,
and when regularly made is both ornamental and useful. To increase the
strength of this stitch, and also to aid in making it true or exact, a
“bar” is formed on each side of the opening before the hole is begun to
be worked. This “bar,” as it is called, is made by passing the needle
from one end of the opening to the other (twice or three times), so that
there is a layer, if it may be so called, of twist stretching along
its whole length (and on each side) upon which the whole is worked,
the workman taking care to keep the “bar” as near to the edge of the
opening as possible, without allowing it to come over, in which case the
button-hole would be neither strong nor neat.

[Illustration: Trousers Pattern Book.]

The filling stitch is similar to that used in hemming; the chief
difference being in the direction given to the needle. In hemming, its
point is directed outwards, or _from_ the workman, but in filling it is
directed inwards, or towards him, and in each should be a little, but
only a little, slanted, in order to give the sewing a neat appearance.
This stitch is used for sewing on facings, and when made with neatness,
and without showing itself much on the outer side of the cloth, is
considered to be ornamental, as well as useful.

[Illustration: Whisk. Measure. Hard Brush. Reel. Iron Holder.]

Stotting (pronounced stoating) is the stitch used for joining pieces
of cloth so neatly that the join shall be but little visible, and yet
so strongly as to prevent the pieces from being easily parted. In this
kind of seam the pieces of cloth are not laid the one upon the other,
as in back-stitching, but are placed side by side, the edges being
carefully fitted, so as to prevent any irregularity or roughness in the
work. They are then sewn together by passing the needle half through the
thickness of the cloth. Care must be taken to keep the stitches as near
to each edge of the cloth as can be done without incurring the danger of
its breaking through. The needle is put in on the nearest edge of the
two, and must not be slanted in the direction given to it, but put as
straight forward as possible. The stitch should be drawn close enough
home to prevent the silk thread from showing itself on the right side of
the cloth, but yet not so close as to draw the edges into a ridge. If
the join be as neatly made as it may be, it will, when properly pressed,
be barely perceptible. This stitch is used for joining the pieces of
cloth of which facings, collar-linings, and other fillings-up of the
inner sides of garments, are made, and also in other cases to prevent the
taking up too much of the cloth by making a back-stitched seam.

[Illustration: Shears. Coat Pattern Book. Wax. Goose Stand. Needle and
Thread.]

Rantering, like stotting, is intended to conceal a join in the cloth.
Here, however, it is requisite to make a strong as well as a neat
joining; and therefore a seam is first sewn with a fore-stitch, and
then the rantering-stitch is worked upon or over this seam. It should
be worked with a very fine silk thread, or with twist that has had one
of the strands taken out. The needle should be both long and slender,
and must be passed forwards and backwards over the seam, so as to catch
hold of its two sides, and draw them closely together. But in doing this
care must be taken not to take a deep hold of the cloth: the nap or wool
is all that should be taken hold of, and this must be done with a light
hand, while the stitches must be placed close to each other, so that the
seam may be well covered with wool; when this is done, the seam has to
be “rubbed up,” that is to say, it must be held between the fore-finger
and thumb of each hand, these being placed upon the fore-stitching, and
its two edges brought as closely together as possible. The rantering must
then be slightly carded or scratched backwards and forwards with the
point of a needle, in order to bring the wool out again where it has been
drawn in with the stitch; the seam is then ready for pressing, and, if
this operation be properly performed, will be as much concealed as may
be necessary; while it will be much stronger than if it had been merely
back-stitched.

In fine-drawing, the stitch is formed in the same manner as in rantering,
but there is a difference in the way of placing the pieces that are to
be joined, _i.e._ if they be separate pieces, for this stitch is mostly
used to close up places that have been accidentally cut, or torn; the
two edges of the place requiring to be fine-drawn are first trimmed by
cutting away the loose threads or ends of the cloth which may be upon
them; they are then placed and kept in as level or flat a position as
is possible, either with the fingers, or by fastening them to a piece
of stiff paper. The needle should be both very small and long, and the
thread used, whether it be of silk or twist, should be very slender.
Greater care is here necessary than in rantering, to avoid taking a deep
hold of the cloth; the needle should be passed forwards and backwards,
over the opening, and the thread should be drawn no closer or tighter
than is quite needful in order to hide it in the wool. The stitches must
be placed as near to each other as is possible, so as to prevent the
edges of the cloth from being visible between them; if it be needful
to make a strong as well as a neat joining, the fine-drawing should be
repeated on the under side of the cloth, but here it will not be needful
to put the stitches so close together. When the fine-drawing is done it
must be pressed, but with as light a hand and in as short a time as is
practicable, otherwise the sewing, however neatly done, will be visible,
and so far as it is so, the design of the fine-drawing stitch will not be
answered.

The stitch called prick-drawing is now but seldom used, yet it may be
proper to notice it briefly. When this stitch is intended to be employed,
the edges of the cloth are first stotted together, after which the needle
is passed backwards and forwards in diagonal lines, under the stotting,
so as to make the join more strong and durable than it can be made by
merely stotting the pieces together.

This stitch is used where the cloth is very thick, or hard and
unyielding, and, consequently, where the stotting-stitch would quickly
give way without this support. It is also better than a back-stitch seam
for cloths of this description, inasmuch as it can be made to lie more
flat, and thus to be more neat in its appearance, than a common seam.

Overcasting is used merely to secure the edges of thin and loose fabrics
from “ravelling out.” In using it, the edges of the cloth, whether it be
woollen, linen, or cotton, are first trimmed clear of the loose threads;
the needle is then passed through the cloth in a forward direction, at
about the distance of one-eighth part of an inch from the edge of the
cloth, and when drawn out it is carried (from the left to the right, and
not, as in other stitches, from the right to the left) about a quarter of
an inch; it is then again put through, and on being drawn out it is made
to pass over the thread leading from the preceding stitch, so as to form
a kind of loop on the edge; which loop secures the edge from becoming too
much frayed, or ravelled.

All the tools that the apprentice or even the journeyman requires may
be bought for a few shillings. A yard of linen for a _lap-cloth_; two
pairs of _scissors_, one pair moderately large, for common use, and the
other small, for button-holes; a _thimble_; a small piece of _bees-wax_;
and threepennyworth of _needles_, are all that he will have occasion to
buy so long as he is not a master, or a journeyman working at home, when
he must procure a _sleeve-board_ and an _iron_. The more expensive part
of even these few implements, viz. the scissors, will, with tolerable
care, last for a number of years with only the trifling expense of being
occasionally sharpened by the cutler.

All the implements used by the Tailor are so well known as to need no
particular description; the _sleeve-board_ is used to place in the
sleeve of a coat while the seams are pressed with the heated _iron_
or the _goose_. In the _measure book_ the dimensions are written when
measurement of a customer is made, and the _French chalk_ marks the
direction in which the cloth is cut to the pattern of the various shapes,
which are afterwards sewn together to make complete garments.




THE TANNER.

[Illustration: THE PITS.]


Leather is a substance universally used amongst civilized and very
generally amongst barbarous nations; it is made from the skins of
animals, which are tanned, or prepared with some substance, having the
power of converting the perishable skin, that decays readily when wet or
moist, into a lasting and comparatively imperishable leather.

The preparation of skins by tanning or other similar processes has
been practised from the earliest times; and although it has engaged
the attention of several scientific men, and has been the subject
of many curious experiments, it has received less alteration from
recent improvements in chemical science than many other manufacturing
processes. Several plans, which have been suggested with a view to
expediting the process, which on the old system is a very tedious one,
have been found to injure the quality of the leather, and have therefore
been wholly or partially abandoned; and others, which appear to be more
successful, are as yet adopted by a few manufacturers only.

The larger and heavier skins operated upon by the Tanner, as those of
bulls, buffaloes, oxen, and cows, are technically distinguished as
_hides_, while the name _skins_ is applied to those of smaller animals,
as calves, sheep, and goats. The process necessary to convert hides into
the thick hard leather used for the soles of boots and shoes, and for
similar purposes will first be noticed. The hides are brought to the
Tanner either in a fresh state, when from animals recently slaughtered,
or, when imported from other countries, dried or salted, and sometimes
both, for the sake of preserving them from decomposition. In the former
case the horns are removed, and the hide is scraped to cleanse it from
any small portions of flesh or fatty matter that may adhere to the inner
skin; but in the latter it is necessary to soften the hides, and bring
them as nearly as possible to the fresh state, by steeping them in
water, and repeated rubbing or beating. After this the hair is removed,
sometimes by steeping the hides for several days in a solution of lime
and water, which has the effect of loosening the hair and epidermis, or
outer skin; and sometimes by suspending them in a close chamber called
a smoke-house, heated a little above the ordinary temperature of the
atmosphere by means of a smouldering fire, in which case the epidermis is
loosened by a very slight putrefaction. In either case, when the hair and
epidermis, or cuticle, are sufficiently loosened, they are removed by
scraping with a curved knife, the hide being laid upon a convex bench or
_beam_.

[Illustration: Unhairing the Hides. Striking the Hides.]

The hides are prepared for the actual tanning, or immersion in a solution
of bark, by steeping them for a few days in a pit containing a sour
solution of rye or barley flour, or in a very weak menstruum, consisting
of one part of sulphuric acid mixed with from five hundred to a thousand
parts of water. By this process, which is called “raising,” the pores of
the hides are distended and rendered more susceptible of the action of
the tan.

Oak-bark is the substance most commonly used to supply the astringent
principle, and it is crushed or ground to powder in a _bark-mill_. In
the old method of tanning, which is not yet entirely abandoned, the hides
and powdered bark were laid in alternate layers in the _tan pit_, which
was then filled with water to the brim. After some months the pit was
emptied, and refilled with fresh bark and water; and this process was
repeated whenever the strength of the bark was exhausted. In this way,
the time required for impregnating the hides varied, according to their
thickness and other circumstances, from one to four years. The process
has been greatly expedited by the improvement, introduced in consequence
of the experiments of M. Seguin, a French chemist, of tanning with
concentrated solutions of bark, formed by passing water through a mass
of powdered bark, until, by successive filtrations, it is completely
deprived of its soluble tanning principle.

[Illustration: Bark Box. Barrow.]

The variations of practice among different Tanners extend to the
substance used as an astringent, as well as to the manner of applying
it. Ground oak-bark, which was formerly the only material in common use,
and is still the most general, produces good leather of a light fawn
colour. Valonia, of which considerable quantities are imported for the
use of Tanners, produces leather of great solidity and weight, the colour
of which is inclined to grey, and which is more impervious to water than
that made with oak-bark. Valonia consists of the acorns of the _Quercus
Ægilops_, and is brought from the Levant and the Morea. Catechu, or terra
japonica, the extract of the _Acacia Catechu_, produces leather of a dark
reddish fawn colour, which is light, spongy, and very pervious to water.

[Illustration: Fleshing Knife, and Section. Shaving Knife, and Section.
Striking Pin, and Section. Unhairing Knife, and Section.]

When the process is complete, the hides are hung up in a shed and allowed
to dry slowly; and while they are drying they are compressed by beating,
or rubbing, or by passing them between rollers, to give them firmness and
density. A yellow deposit is now found upon the surface of the leather,
to which the name of “bloom” or “pitching” is technically given.

We have hitherto alluded chiefly to the preparation of the thick hides
used for sole leather, among which several varieties may be found, each
distinguished by a different technical name, by which its thickness,
quality, or mode of preparation is known; but the thinnest and weakest
hides, as well as the skins of calves and other animals, are also
prepared for use as upper leathers, in which case it is necessary to
reduce their thickness by _shaving_ or _paring_ them down upon the flesh
or inner side, before they are subjected to the action of the tanning
infusions. Such hides or skins also require, after leaving the hands of
the Tanner, to be rubbed, softened, and dressed by the currier, in order
to bring them to the necessary degree of flexibility and smoothness.
The currier also has recourse to shaving or paring with a peculiarly
formed _knife_, to bring the skin to the requisite tenuity; and it is his
office to blacken the surface, which, for common shoe leather, is done
on the flesh side, although for some purposes leather is blackened on
the outer or grain side. Horse-hides, which are comparatively weak and
thin, are sometimes dressed in the latter way, under the name of Cordovan
hides, from the circumstance of such leather having been formerly made
at Cordova, in Spain. Calf-skins supply the quality of leather most
generally preferred for the upper part of boots and shoes.

Of the thin skins prepared for ornamental purposes, many are tanned with
a substance called _sumach_, prepared from a plant of the same name. The
tanning is performed by sewing up each skin into the form of a bag, with
the grain or hair side outwards, and nearly filling it with a strong
solution of _sumach_ in water. The bag is then fully distended by blowing
into it, and the aperture is tied up; after which it is thrown into a
large shallow vessel filled with hot water containing a little sumach.
The distended bags float in this vessel, and are occasionally moved
about with a wooden instrument until the solution which they contain
has thoroughly penetrated their substance. Owing to the thinness of the
skins and the heat to which they are exposed, this operation is performed
in a few hours. The process is expedited by taking the bags out of the
solution, and piling them upon a perforated bench or rack at the side of
the tub, so that their own weight may force the confined liquid through
the pores.

[Illustration: Apron. Gloves. Whetter. Roller. Leoline.]

When the tanning is completed, the bags are opened to remove the sediment
of the sumach; the skins are washed, rubbed on a board, and dried; after
which they are ready for dyeing and finishing with a ridged instrument,
which imparts to the surface that peculiar grain by which morocco leather
is distinguished. An inferior kind of leather, known as “imitation
morocco,” is prepared in a similar manner from sheepskins.

[Illustration: Plungers. Tongs. Jet. Hook.]

“Tawing” is the name applied to the process by which the skins of lambs
and kids are converted into soft leather by the action of alum. Of this
kind of leather gloves are usually made.

The _jet_ and _plungers_ used for immersing the hides in the tan, the
_tongs_ and _hook_ for removing them, and the other implements, are
easily understood as applied to the various processes here mentioned.

[Illustration]




THE SHOEMAKER.

[Illustration: WORKSHOP.]


The trade of the Shoemaker naturally follows that of the tanner, since
leather is the material principally employed in making coverings for
the feet; the tough hides of animals being used for the same purpose in
countries where the art of tanning is either unknown or not practised.
Scarcely any handicraft employment engages the attention of so many
persons in this country as boot and shoe making. From the fashionable
bootmaker to the poor cobbler, who crouches in a stall under a house in
some narrow street, is a wide interval, and this interval is filled up by
numerous grades. At Northampton boots and shoes are made on a very large
scale for the London markets; they include chiefly the cheap varieties,
but at some of the recent exhibitions of manufactures the Northampton
bootmakers have exhibited specimens of workmanship which are considered
to be quite equal to those of London or Paris. At Edenbridge, in Kent,
and at other places, the strong coarse “hob-nailed” shoes are made, which
are so much worn by waggoners and others.

The London makers import from Paris very large quantities of boot
fronts, which, when combined with other parts of English manufacture,
constitute many of the “French boots” which now glisten in the windows.
Notwithstanding the large number of persons employed in these avocations
in England, and the abundant supply of leather, there is still a
considerable import of boots and shoes from abroad, chiefly France.

In the old statutes a Shoemaker is called a cordwainer, apparently
a corruption of the French _cordonnier_, which means a worker of
Cordova leather. The companies of Shoemakers in our ancient towns were
incorporated under this name; and where some of these companies now
exist, they are known by the same name. As a legal term, cordwainer is
still used.

The trade, as now followed in London and other principal places, is
subdivided into about twenty branches. The following may be set down
as the chief: the shoeman, or maker of the sole part of the shoe; the
bootman, or maker of the sole part of the boot; and the boot closer, or
joiner together of the leg, vamp, &c. The labour of these is especially
directed to what is called the men’s line; whilst others make the ladies’
shoes or boots. There are many women, too, who get a livelihood by
closing the shoe, while others again follow the various sorts of binding.

The mechanical processes, after marking and cutting out the leather,
consist chiefly in various kinds of strong needlework, such as the
lasting or tacking of the upper leather to the in-sole, the sewing in of
the welt, the stitching to this welt of the out or top sole, the building
and sewing down of the heel, and the sewing or closing of boot legs. The
boot closer is the most skilful of the persons employed, and receives the
highest wages.

The materials with which the Shoemaker works are generally called the
_grindery_,—they are so called at least through England and Scotland,
though in Dublin it is called _finding_.

“The cause of this technicality,” says Mr. James Devlin, in his most
interesting description of the trade of the Shoemaker in the Industrial
Library, “is now, I believe, scarcely known to any one in the trade.
The relation to whom I was apprenticed, a man of a very active and
inquisitive turn of mind, told me its history, which it may be worth
while here to relate.

“Formerly, before hemp, flax, wax, hairs, or any description of tools,
were sold, as now, in shops set apart to this particular business, the
shoemaker, not using the peculiar sort of stone rubber or the emery
composition which he now uses to sharpen his knives upon, was in the
habit occasionally of taking his knives to be ground (as the French
shoemaker does at the present day) to some of the common knife-grinders
of the neighbourhood. The knife-grinder having thus the Shoemaker for
a regular customer, began in time to add to his usual business that of
selling hemp, &c.; hence his little shop being termed the _grindery_,
every thing he sold became known under this name, and is still continued.”

The tools of the Shoemaker are in their collective form denominated his
_kit_. Anciently, and in the old songs of the trade, they were called
“St. Hugh’s bones,” from a now almost forgotten, though somewhat pleasant
tradition. In Stow, and in Randle Holme’s “Academie of Armorie,” 1688,
we find this term; as, also, in the still older romance of “Crispin and
Crispianus;” and in two plays, “The Shoemaker is a Gentleman,” and the
“Shoemaker’s Holiday,” of the beginning of the seventeenth century.

The kit of the Shoemaker is, however, no longer now, as formerly, made up
of “bones”—saint or infidel, human or brute,—but principally of good and
kindly steel; purchased ready-made at the _grinder’s_, or the grindery
establishments before spoken of, and kept afterwards (in this country,
at least, and in America) in repair and proper order by the ingenuity
and care of the workman himself; though in France, and generally on
the continent, much of this is done by another person, to whom such
occupation is the sole means of livelihood.

Under the general term _kit_ is comprehended the _pincers_, _nippers_,
_hammer_, the various descriptions of _awls_, of _setting irons_, and
many other articles.

It has often been a matter for great surprise that the Shoemaker should
sit in such a cramped and unhealthy position at his work, crouched over
his _clamps_ as he holds the leather in them between his knees while
engaged in sewing, or over the block, which he holds fast to his thigh
with the _stirrup_ that passes underneath his foot.

[Illustration: Nippers. Awl. Stirrup. Lapstone. Hammer. Clamps.]

Many inventions and improvements have been made for enabling the
Shoemaker to stand during a great part of his time, and some of these
seem well adapted to supersede the old position, but at present they have
been only partially adopted.

The Shoemaker’s thread being tipped with bristles, no needle is required
for sewing; but the thread itself is passed through the hole made with
the _awl_. Quickly goes in the awl, and as quickly is out again, but not
before the hair from the fingers of the left hand has found the passage,
without being at all directed by the sight, but literally in the dark;
and hence the term _blind stabbing_, the right hand hair immediately
following in the opposite course, the closed thumb and fore-finger
of either hand nipping at the moment the hairs from these different
directions, and drawing the same as instantly out, at once completing the
stitch.

A proficient closer, or closer’s boy—for here, in general, the boy is
even more expert than the man—will in the space of half an hour stab the
four side rows and the two back rows of the counter of a boot, each inch
of stitching taking about twenty stitches, and the entire work averaging
about fifteen inches, three hundred stitches being thus put in in thirty
minutes, or fifty every five minutes, each stitch requiring in itself
six distinct operations—the skill of sight or distance, the putting in
of the awl, and again its withdrawal, the putting in the left-hand hair,
and again of the right, and lastly, the careful though rapid drawing, or
rather twitching, out of the thread itself.

The closer needs little kit: a slip of board to _fit_ or prepare the work
upon; a pair of _clamps_; a _block_; a _knife_; about three _awls_, two
differently-sized closing awls, and one stabbing awl; two _seam-sets_,
or it may be three—one for the stabbed sides; a _stirrup_; a case of
_needles_ (short blunts), and a _thimble_.

[Illustration: Fore-part Iron. Seat Iron. Seat File. Gigger Iron. Jim
Crow. Breaker. Glazing Iron. Bevel Iron.]

The lining in all shoes, at least, but those of the very strongest
kind, is entirely the work of the woman, being done with the needle,
and elegantly it often is done. After the lining, the _upper_ has to
be _set_; a matter soon effected; the flat-seam-set, or, if stabbed,
the stabbing-side-set, being heated at a candle (though this is not
necessary, and might from the danger of the practice be well dispensed
with) and a little dissolved gum being rubbed on the seam, the set is
immediately to be somewhat forcibly and briskly pressed along the line
of stitching, which thus takes an almost instant polish, and being also
hardened, the upper becomes ready for shop; that is, to be sent to the
_maker_, or shoeman, to finish by putting in the welt, soles, and other
parts of the shoe; the “stitching” being effected with a square awl.

[Illustration: Knife. Last. Paste Horn.]

The number of tools used by the Boot and Shoemaker who combines all the
branches of the trade is very great, although few of them are remarkably
expensive, except some of the patent metal or hardwood _lasts_, on which
the shoes or boots are placed. The _lapstone_ on which the leather is
hammered after being damped; and the various kinds of _irons_ used for
rubbing, paring, or shaping the soles and other parts of the shoe, are
the principal implements, beside the _awls_, _knives_, _hammers_, and
_rasp_.

The _glazing iron_ is used for burnishing the heel of the boot or shoe;
the _paste horn_ for containing the paste used in the inside lining of
the shoe or boot; the _irons_ for setting up the leather beside the
stitching, and the _Jim-crow_, which is a small toothed wheel running in
a handle for the same purpose. The _long stick_ is used for “sleeking,”
or smoothing and softening the upper part of the boot or shoe, after it
has been made and placed on the block, in order to take out any wrinkles
that may remain.

[Illustration: Long Stick. Rasp.]

It would be impossible to give any clear description of all the
operations of the trade of the Shoemaker in the space devoted here to
this particular business, and even were it attempted, no very clear
idea could be conveyed of the various portions of his work; since, like
the tailor, he has first to cut out the leather to the proper shape for
making the various parts, which have afterwards to be put together.
Indeed, beyond mentioning the uses of the various tools, most of which
are simple enough, little can be said to explain the operation of the
Shoemaker that would not require actual inspection of the different
processes; although many of them may be understood by looking at a shoe,
after having observed the accompanying pictures and having read what has
been said about the tools employed.




THE SADDLER AND HARNESS MAKER.

[Illustration: WORKSHOP.]


The manufacture of saddles and harness for horses is one requiring very
considerable skill and no little patience, since on the ability of the
Saddler depends not only the health and comfort of the horse, but the
safety of the rider. The beauty and finish of the harness and its
appurtenances are so essential to the proper appearance presented by the
whole equipage, that a very great deal of attention is now given even to
the smallest details, such as buckles, mounts and ornamental sewing on
straps and traces.

[Illustration: Spokeshave. Cutting Gauge. Dead Punch. Compasses. Mallet.
Hand Iron.]

The operations in the trade of the Saddler are so similar to those of the
shoemaker, as far as the stitching and cutting of leather are concerned,
that they require very little description. The most difficult part of
his business is the skilful making of saddles. To fit the pigskin over
the iron shape, and skilfully to arrange the padding, is often a very
troublesome task, where a horse requires some peculiarity of make before
he can be well fitted; and to ensure a perfect smoothness and finish
a skilful use of the _hand iron_ and the _spokeshave_ is necessary.
Similar care has to be taken in forming the collars to which the harness
is attached; and indeed no part of the Saddler’s work can be carelessly
performed without serious risk either to the horse or its owner.

[Illustration: Needle and Thread. Clamps. Lead Piece. Hand Knife. Punch.
Round Knife. Pricking Iron. Hand Knife. Hammer.]

As a great part of the Saddlers’ work consists of sewing, he uses the
_clamps_ to hold the leather between his knees, in the same way as they
are used by the shoemaker; but although he employs the _sewing awl_ for
drilling holes, or, at all events, the _pricking iron_, the sewing is
done with _needles_ and strongly waxed _thread_. The various kinds of
_knives_ are used for cutting and paring the leather; the _cutting gauge_
and _compasses_ for regulating the cutting, the _hammer_ for driving
the small nails used in the work, and the _mallet_ for striking the
_pricking iron_ or _punches_. The _punch_ is used for making the holes
in the straps to receive the tongue of the buckle, and is therefore a
hollow tube with a sharp cutting edge, so that it will cut out a little
round piece of the leather. The _dead punch_ is made solid, and is not
intended for cutting. The leather, when it has to be cut with the punch,
is placed on the _lead piece_, a small square block of lead, which being
soft allows a slight yielding of the leather, and at the same time does
not blunt the edge of the punch when it has passed through the hole.

[Illustration: Edging Iron. Seat Awl. Packing Awl. Sewing Awl. Double
Crease. Single Crease. Nail Claw.]

The _seat awl_ and _packing awl_ are used in the padding and making of
saddles and collars; the _nail claw_ for removing nails by which the
leather has been fastened down.

The various kinds of _creases_ are for the purpose of making channels in
the leather along the edges which have to be sewn, so that the stitches
are sunk below the surface, and the thread will not so easily wear out.
The _edging iron_ is for a similar purpose. In common saddlery some of
the comparatively unimportant straps, or the smaller gear, are not sewn
at the edges, and indeed do not require it, although a great deal of the
Saddler’s sewing is for ornamental purposes. In order to make the whole
look uniform, however, these straps are not left plain, but are creased
at the edges, and the channels thus made are marked with the _pricking
iron_, to give them the appearance of having been stitched. The Saddler
is better off than the shoemaker, inasmuch as he generally sits to work
at a bench, and need not occupy such a constrained and unhealthy position.

Some account has already been given of the preparation of leather, but it
will be desirable here to mention other sorts, some of which particularly
belong to the business of harness making.

[Illustration: Screw Crease. Varnish Pot. Sponge.]

Sheep-skins, when simply tanned, are employed for inferior bookbinding,
for leathering bellows, and for various other purposes for which a cheap
leather is required. All the _whit-leather_, as it is termed, which is
used for whip-lashes, bags, aprons, &c. is of sheep-skin; as are also the
cheaper kinds of _wash-leather_, of which gloves, under-waistcoats, and
other articles of dress, are made. Mock, or imitation morocco, and most
of the other coloured and dyed leathers used for women’s and children’s
shoes, carriage-linings, and the covering of stools, chairs, sofas,
writing-tables, &c. are also made of sheep-skin.

Lamb-skins are mostly dressed white or coloured for gloves; and those of
goats and kids supply the best qualities of light leather, the former
being the material of the best morocco, while kid leather affords the
finest material for gloves and ladies’ shoes. Leather from goat-skins,
ornamented and sometimes gilt, was formerly used as a hanging or covering
for walls.

[Illustration: Harness.]

Deer and antelope skins, dressed in oil, are used chiefly for riding
breeches. Horse-hides, which, considering their size, are thin, are
tanned and curried, and are used by the Harness Maker, especially for
collars, and occasionally, when pared thin, for the upper leathers of
ladies’ walking shoes. Dog-skins are thick and rough, and make excellent
leather. Seal-skins produce a leather similar but inferior to that
supplied by dog-skins; and hog-skins afford a thin but dense leather,
which is used mostly for covering the seats of saddles.

Currying is the general name given to the various operations of
dressing leather after the tanning is completed, by which the requisite
smoothness, lustre, colour, and suppleness, are imparted. The processes
of the Currier are various. The first is styled “dipping” the leather.
It consists in moistening with water, and beating upon a trellis-work of
wooden spars with a _mallet_ or _mace_. After this beating, by which the
stiffness of the hide or skin is destroyed, it is laid over an inclined
board, and scraped and cleaned, and, wherever it is too thick, pared
or shaved down on the flesh side by the careful application of various
two-handled knives, and then thrown again into water, and well scoured
by rubbing the grain or hair side with pumice-stone, or with a piece of
slatey grit, by which means the _bloom_, a whitish matter which is found
upon the surface in tanning, is removed.

[Illustration: Rule. Pincers. File. Pliers.]

The leather is then rubbed with the _pommel_, a rectangular piece of
hard wood, about twelve inches long by five broad, grooved on the under
surface, and fastened to the hand. The Currier uses several of these
instruments, with grooves of various degrees of fineness, and also, for
some purposes, pommels of cork, which are not grooved at all. The object
of this rubbing is to give grain and pliancy to the leather. The leather
is then scraped with tools applied nearly perpendicular to its surface,
and worked forcibly with both hands, to reduce such parts as may yet be
left too thick, to a uniform substance. After this it is dressed with
the _round knife_, a singular instrument which pares off the coarser
fleshy parts of the skin. In addition to these operations, the Currier
uses occasionally polishers of smooth wood or glass, for rubbing the
surface of the leather; and when the leather is intended for the use of
the shoemaker, he applies to it some kind of greasy composition called
_dubbing_ or _stuffing_.

Leather is occasionally dressed “black on the grain,” or having the grain
side instead of the flesh coloured. The currying operations in such a
case are similar to those above described, but the finishing processes
are rather different. The leather is rubbed with a grit-stone, to remove
any wrinkles and smooth down the coarse grain. The grain is finally
raised by repeatedly rubbing over the surface, in different directions,
with the pommel or graining board.

Japanned leather of various kinds is used in coach making, harness
making, and for various other purposes. Patent leather is covered with
a coat of elastic japan, which gives a surface like polished glass,
impermeable to water; and hides prepared in a more perfectly elastic mode
of japanning, which will permit folding without cracking the surface, are
called enamelled leather. Such leather has the japan annealed, something
in the same mode as glass; the hides are laid between blankets, and
subjected to the heat of an oven at a peculiar temperature during several
hours.




THE HATTER.

[Illustration: CUTTING MACHINE.]


The trade of the Hatter is confined to a few countries of Europe; but,
as the fashion of hats is at present mostly restricted, both here and in
most parts of the Continent, to those black stiff cylindrical coverings
of silk which custom has ordained we shall wear, greatly to our own
discomfort, and at a great expense, the business is of considerable
importance, and the making of hats has grown into a large branch of
industry. Before the introduction of that kind of silk which bears a
long pile, like velvet, and is known as _plush_, beaver was the material
principally used for hat making; but beaver hats are much more expensive,
though they are now seldom made of the skin or fur of the beaver, which
has grown remarkably scarce, in consequence of the land which the animals
formerly occupied having become inhabited.

[Illustration: Cutting out. Bowing.]

Beaver hats of the finest quality are made with lamb’s wool and the fur
of English rabbits. To form the body of the hat, the wool and rabbit’s
fur are separately _bowed_ by bringing a set of strings attached to a bow
in contact with a heap of the material, and then striking the strings, so
as to cause violent vibrations, and thus separate the filaments. The two
substances are next bowed together until they are intimately mixed; after
which the mass is spread evenly, covered with an oil-cloth, and pressed
to the state of an imperfectly tangled felt. The next process is to cover
the felt with a triangular piece of damp brown paper, and then to fold it
in a damp cloth, and work it well with the hand, pressing and bending,
rolling and unrolling it, until the interlacing or felting is much more
perfect, and the mass is compact. The felt thus prepared is next taken to
the wide brim of a boiler charged with hot water and beer grounds, and a
small quantity of sulphuric acid; it is well rubbed and rolled until it
no longer contracts. The felt is next stiffened with shellac, a solution
of which is applied by means of a brush to both sides of the felt; after
which it is heated in a stove, and by this means the whole substance
becomes duly impregnated with the resin; this renders the hat nearly
waterproof.

[Illustration: Bow for Beaver.]

To form the nap of a hat, one half or three-fourths of an ounce
of beaver, and some other less costly fur, are bowed together and
imperfectly felted in the manner already described, and shaped the same
as the body to which it is to be applied; that body is then softened by
immersing it in the boiler, when the nap is applied and worked as in
felting, until the required union is effected between the two bodies.

The felt thus covered is brought to the proper shape by working it on a
wooden block, and is then dyed black. The hat is softened by steam, the
crown is strengthened by placing in it a disc of scaleboard, and linen is
pasted over this.

The nap is raised and a uniform direction given to its fibres by means of
warm irons and hair brushes. The last processes are lining and binding,
when the hat is ready to be worn. In the low-priced hats of the present
day, commoner wool and fur, and smaller quantities of each, are used.

[Illustration: Lathe. Finishing.]

Silk hats consist of a cover or exterior part made of silk plush, which
is laid upon a foundation of chip, stiffened linen, or some other light
material, previously blocked into shape. The so-called velvet and satin
hats deserve those titles only so far as the plush resemble those
materials. The plush is mostly woven in the north of England. Paris hats
are for the most part made in England, the silk plush being imported from
France.

[Illustration: Rounding Card, No. 1. Rounding Card, No. 2. Finishing
Iron. Brow-piece. Blistering Iron. Card. Polishing Block. Multer. Brush.]

The various tools employed are mostly used for shaping the different
parts of the hat. The _cutting machine_, for dividing and preparing the
felt and other materials; the _block_, on which the body of the hat is
formed previous to its being placed in the _lathe_, where it is made
perfectly round; the _brow-piece_, for shaping the hat where it fits
the head; the _card_, a sort of wire brush for scratching up or carding
the fibre of the silk or beaver after the hat is made; the _rounding
cards_, for pressing and completing the hat near the brim; the _curler_,
for turning up and shaping the brim; the _multer_, _finishing iron_, and
_blistering iron_, are used for shaping and smoothing; the _polishing
block_ holds the hat while it receives the final process of brushing and
smoothing with a pad of velvet called the _veleure_.

[Illustration: Curler. Block. Veleure.]




THE MILLER.

[Illustration: WATER-MILL.]


There is scarcely a boy to be found who, when he has been into the
country and seen the wheel of the old water mill going round, or the fans
of the windmill slowly revolving in the air, has not thought that it
would be pleasant to follow the business of a Miller.

Millers are proverbially jolly fellows, and their houses and the mills
themselves are generally very picturesque, and stand in pleasant country
places; then, again, what wonderful fat perch and chub and pike can be
caught in the weir or the mill stream, and what a quiet sleepy occupation
it must be to lie on the grass or in some great room in the mill,
watching the fans, or listening to the summer breeze wafting through the
sails!

If anybody should think, however, that the Miller’s life is a lazy one
he had better alter his opinion; for, unless he wishes to starve amidst
plenty, the Miller must be up betimes, and, besides working himself,
keeping a good look-out amongst his men, lest both he and his customers
should suffer by their negligence.

The mortar would seem to be the earliest machine used for the purpose
of bruising or reducing grain to a powder, or into a state fit for the
making of bread. By means of the handle the pestle would with tolerable
facility be driven round the mortar, and the grain reduced to a powder,
as is done with certain drugs by the pestle of the apothecary of the
present day.

In process of time, shafts were added to these machines; and in the
opinion of Beckmann, the oldest cattle mills resembled those described in
Sonnerat’s Voyage to the East Indies, in which the pestle of a mortar,
fastened to a stake driven into the earth, is affixed to a shaft, to
which two oxen are yoked. These oxen are driven by a man, while another
is employed in dropping the grain into the mortar and placing it under
the pestle.

We have good reason for knowing that the Romans, for a long time, used no
other instrument than the pestle and mortar.

Pounding continued in use among the Romans so late as after the era of
Vespasian. This fact clearly proves that the Romans were many ages behind
the Eastern world in the arts of civilization, for grinding of corn into
flour was practised, we know, in the times of the patriarchs, and was
probably the invention of the antediluvian world.

The subject-Britons universally adopted the Roman name, but applied it,
as we their successors apply it at present, only to the Roman mill;
still distinguishing their own original mill as we distinguish it, by
its own original denomination of a quern. A Roman or water mill was
probably erected at every stationary town in the kingdom, and it is quite
certain that one was erected at Mancunium (Manchester), serving equally
the purposes of the town and the uses of the garrison. One alone would
be sufficient, as the use of hand-mills was at that time very common
in both, many such having been found about the site of the station
particularly, and the use of them generally having being retained among
us very nearly to the present period. Such mills it would be particularly
necessary to have in the station, that the garrison might be prudently
provided against a siege.

The ancient Asiatic hand-mill consists of two flat round stones, about
twenty inches or two feet in diameter, kept rolling one on the other by
means of a stick, which does the office of a handle. The corn falls down
on the undermost stone, through a hole in the middle of the uppermost,
which by its circular motion spreads it on the undermost, where it is
bruised and reduced to flour; this flour, working out at the rim of the
millstones, lights on a board set on purpose to receive it. The bread
made of it is said to be better tasted than that made by either wind or
water mills: these hand-mills cost only a few shillings of English money.

This description of mill is frequently alluded to in the Scriptures,
and it was the practice for the women to grind corn every morning by
means of hand-mills; and in the East, or at least in many parts of it, it
continues to be the practice to this day.

Water wheels, as far as the figure and construction are concerned, may be
reduced to three kinds, and they are usually known by the names—overshot
wheel, balance wheel, breast wheel, and undershot wheel.

[Illustration: Mill.]

In an overshot wheel, the water is conducted over the top of the wheel,
and acts first by its momentum or mere movement, or motion, and then by
its weight—the weight being its principal power in impelling the wheel
round, the mere movement or motion of the water producing in this case
little effect. The water is received into buckets placed all around the
circle of the wheel. It first strikes the wheel at the top, and filling
the first bucket, by its momentum or moving power, and more particularly
by its weight, it sets the wheel in motion, and consequently makes that
side heavier; and as fresh buckets rise to receive the water, while those
below have emptied themselves, a constant tendency to motion is created,
and rotation is produced.

In a balance wheel, the water strikes the wheel not at the top, but
always more or less above its centre, or axle. This wheel differs in no
respect from the overshot wheel in its construction. It is employed where
there is not a sufficient fall for an overshot wheel, which requires less
water in consequence of its commanding a much greater leverage.

In an undershot wheel the water acts only by its momentum, or moving
power. The circumference of the wheel, instead of being supplied with
buckets, as in the overshot, and breast or balance wheels, is furnished
with floats, or float boards, as they are called, and, being exposed
to the action of a running stream, generally, if not always, increased
in rapidity by making an artificial fall, is thus driven round, and
in flour-mills its force is communicated by cog-wheels to the stones
employed in reducing corn to meal.

In a breast wheel, the water has no previous fall, and therefore does
not strike the floats at the bottom of the wheels, as in the undershot
wheel, with an increased velocity. The breast wheel is therefore fixed
in what is called a race, formed of stone or brick work, agreeing with
the curvature of the wheel, and being thus let on from its own level,
acts both by its weight and momentum, or movement. This wheel is unlike
the undershot wheel, being close boarded round its circumference, like
an overshot or balance wheel, the undershot wheel being always open;
in short, it is a sort of bucket wheel; the buckets, however, being
constructed differently from those of the overshot and balance wheels.

A tide-mill, as the name imports, is worked by the ebbing and flowing of
the tide. Of these mills there are various kinds; first, those in which
the water wheel turns one way when the tide is rising, and the other when
it is falling; secondly, those in which the wheel turns the same way
whether it is rising or falling; thirdly, those in which the wheel itself
rises or falls as the tide flows or ebbs; and fourthly, those in which
the axle of the water wheel is so fixed, that it shall neither rise nor
fall; the rotary motion being still given to the wheel, whether it be
partially or wholly immersed in the water.

All the machines for grinding corn and seeds are mills, whatever may be
their particular application. One very common form is that of an iron
machine, supported on four legs, having a winch handle on one side, a fly
wheel on another, a hopper at the top, and a crushing apparatus in the
centre. The grain or seed is put into the hopper, the winch handle is
turned, the grain becomes crushed to powder, and falls out at the bottom
of the apparatus. Sometimes the mill is made chiefly of wood, but with
iron wheel and crushing apparatus. One kind of wheat mill, in addition
to the usual mill apparatus, has a chest which acts as a flour-dressing
machine. Some mills are adapted for crushing beans rather than seeds.

The crushing apparatus in mills is of two kinds, either one stone working
round in contact with another, or two metallic surfaces, between which
the substance is forced, but between which it cannot pass except in a
fine state.

The _millstones_ employed in grinding corn require to be made of a
peculiar kind of stone. The greater proportion of our millstones are
procured from a particular spot in Western Germany. At about ten miles
from Coblentz is a small town called Andernach, the chief trade of which
is in millstones, procured from the neighbouring quarries of Nieder
Mendig. There are several quarries, averaging about fifty feet in depth,
each quarry shaped like an inverted cone, down the sides of which the
quarrymen descend by a spiral path. The quarrymen have to cut away
through a superincumbent layer of soft porous stone, till they come to
a layer of hard, blackish, heavy stone, regularly porous, and yielding
sparks when struck with iron. This is the millstone, and requires good
and well-prepared tools to work it; it is supposed to be a compact
lava from some extinct volcano; and as there are fissures or gaps at
intervals, these facilitate the separation of the stone into blocks
suitable for millstones. All round the bottom of the conical cavities,
the stone has been excavated in galleries or horizontal passages. The
stones are brought to shape by means of hammers and chisels. A deep
socket is cut through the middle of such stones as are intended for
runners, or upper stones. The furrows on the surfaces of the stones are
produced by means of a double-edged hammer, about 14 lbs. weight.

Windmills are of two kinds; in one the wind is made to act upon vanes
or sails, generally four, which are disposed so as to revolve by that
action in a plane which is nearly vertical; and in the other, the axis
of revolution being precisely vertical, any point on the surface of a
vane revolves in a horizontal plane. The former is called a _vertical_
windmill, and the latter a _horizontal_ windmill.

The building for a vertical windmill is generally a wall of timber or
brickwork, in the form of a frustrum of a cone, and terminated above by a
wooden dome, which is capable of revolving horizontally upon it. A ring
of wood, forming the lower part of the dome, rests upon a ring of the
same material at the top of the wall, and the surfaces in contact being
made very smooth, the dome may easily be turned round upon the wall;
and is prevented from sliding off by a rim which projects from it, and
descends over the interior circumference of the lower ring. The dome in
turning carries with it the windsails and their axle; and thus the wind
sails may be adjusted to agree with the direction of the wind, or the
plane in which the radii of the sails turn may be made perpendicular to
that direction. The revolution is sometimes accomplished by the force of
a man applied to a winch near the ground, but in general the wind itself
is made to turn the dome or the mill by means of a set of small vanes,
which are situated at the extremity of a long horizontal arm projecting
from the dome, in a plane passing through the vertical shaft of the mill,
and on the side opposite to the great sails.

A horizontal windmill is a great cylindrical frame of timber, which is
made to revolve about an upright centre, and its convex surface is formed
of boards attached in vertical positions to the upper and lower parts
of the frame. The whole is enclosed in a fixed cylinder having the same
upright centre as the other; this consists of a _revolving screen_ or a
number of boards, which are so disposed that in whatever direction the
wind may blow, it may enter between them on one side only of a vertical
plane, passing through the axis, and thus give motion to the interior
cylinder. The effective power of the vertical windmill is, however, so
much greater than that of the horizontal windmill, that the latter is now
seldom constructed.

[Illustration: Dressing Machine or Bolter. Jack.]

The _dressing machine_ consists of a hollow cylinder, or frame, covered
with wire cloth of different degrees of fineness, the finest being at the
elevated, or upper end of the cylinder, which is inclined in the same way
as the bolting mill. Within the cylinder, which may be made of pieces
of wood rendered circular, and, like the ribs of an animal, placed at
certain distances from each other, a reel is placed with its axle in the
centre of the cylinder, which is fixed, or stationary. To the rails of
this reel are attached hair brushes, which, when made to revolve, or turn
round, brush against the interior cloth wire surface of the cylinder.
The machine is provided with a shoe or jigger, very similar to that of
the millstones, to cause a regular supply of flour or meal in the same
state in which it came from the millstones through a spout from the floor
above, to which it is elevated by the sack tackle, or elevator, after
being ground. The meal by this means being gradually let, or fed into
the cylinder, is, by the motion of the brushes of the reel, sifted or
rubbed through the cloth wire with which the cylinder is covered. The
finest of the flour will go through the upper end, where the finest wire
cloth is placed; the next finest through the next division of the wire
cloth, which is coarser, the middlings through the following division,
the pollard, or sharps, through the last, and the bran, not being able
to get through the wire cloth at all, on account of its coarseness, is
thrown out at the end of the cylinder. The cylinder is enclosed in a
large and close box, to prevent the waste of flour by its going off in
dust. This box is divided into several compartments, or partitions, by
means of moveable boards. Some millers have more partitions than others,
and indeed they all vary the number to suit the nature or sort of flour
which they are manufacturing. In a dressing machine of three divisions,
the flour deposited in the first is called household, or seconds, that in
the second middlings, and in the third pollard, which is not flour, but a
fine description of bran.

[Illustration: Revolving Screen. Jacob’s Ladder.]

When wheat arrives at a mill to be ground the sacks are received in the
lower part of the mill, and hoisted by means of the sack tackle to the
upper storeys, generally the uppermost. The mode of this operation is
as follows, and it is performed with little bodily labour. The rope or
chain of the sack tackle is firmly fastened round the mouth of the sack
by the man below, who by means of a rope attached to a lever throws the
tackle into gear. The sack then immediately ascends, without any further
aid from the man, through the different trap doors, till it has arrived
at the place of its destination. There another man is ready to receive
it, who, as soon as he has landed it by pulling it on one side, throws
the tackle out of gear, and returns the rope or chain to the man below.
The wheat is then shot into a garner or bin, and thus the same process
goes on till the whole load or cargo is safely deposited in the bin or
garner. The wheat remains there till it is wanted to be ground, when, by
means of a spout, it is conveyed to the hoppers below, and from thence
runs in between the stones. In its progress to the stones, it may, or
may not, be subjected to a cleansing process. The wheat being reduced
to a flour, escapes through an aperture of the floor into a spout, by
which it is conveyed to the trough. It is then either put into sacks,
and drawn up again into one of the higher storeys, and deposited in bins
over the dressing machines, or this is effected by a machine called
an _elevator_, which performs the operation without the assistance of
manual labour. In this bin the flour should be left till, at any rate,
it is perfectly cold, but is will be all the better if it remain for
three or four weeks, provided it be occasionally turned. From this bin
it is passed, by means of a spout, to the hopper of the bolting mill or
dressing machine, by which it is separated from the bran or pollard, and
is then fit for use.

[Illustration: Smutter. Scoop. Claw.]

The _screening machine_ consists of a roller-shaped sieve, so divided,
that the corn which is placed at one end passes over a large surface of
wire as the sieve revolves, and this operation removes from it external
impurities, such as sand and dirt. When it arrives at the end of the
screw the wheat falls into a hopper, by which it is conveyed by spouts
into small hoppers, placed over one side of each pair of millstones. From
these hoppers there are spouts placed in nearly a horizontal line, which
spouts conduct the corn from the hoppers to the eye of the millstone.
They are attached to the hopper, so as to admit of a horizontal motion,
which is effected by a projecting part of the axle or spindle of the
stone, called a _damsel_. It is shaped like a cross, so that, by the
revolution of the millstone, it keeps tapping the end of the spout, and
gives a rapid vibratory motion to it, which causes a regular supply of
corn to enter the eye of the stone; by the action of the stones the corn
is reduced to flour, which passes, by means of spouts, into the troughs
on the ground floor.

[Illustration: Scales and Weights. Troughs.]

The _troughs_ in which the flour is kept; the _scoop_ and _scales_ for
weighing small quantities; the _claw_ for moving and the _steelyard_ for
weighing sacks, are the other principal objects seen in a mill. _Jacob’s
ladder_ is the name given to a revolving band fitted with a number of
leathern cups. These revolve with the band through the flour and serve to
carry it up a shaft from one floor to another.

[Illustration: Steelyard.]




THE BAKER.

[Illustration: BAKING OVEN AND KNEADING TROUGH.]


Of all the trades that are carried on in large towns there is none more
important than that of the Baker. In some parts of the country, where
people make their own bread at home, or at all events have all the
materials for making it, and know how to mix the different ingredients,
it is of less consequence; but only imagine what would be our dismay
in London, if we got up some morning and heard that all the bakers had
agreed not to send in the rolls for breakfast, and that we must be
satisfied to live upon puddings and vegetables until they set to work
again to make bread.

And yet, in the early part of their history, several nations of which
we read at school had no knowledge of the trade of a Baker. Until they
discovered the art of making proper bread, and somebody showed them the
use of an oven, the Romans made their meal into a sort of porridge, or
knew no better than to mix it into flat cakes, which they cooked on hot
stones or in the wood ashes of their fires. The Anglo-Saxons were a
little better off, for they mixed leaven with their dough, to make the
cakes lighter and better; but you will remember—by the story of King
Alfred, who when he was in disguise and going to watch the Danish camp,
was left in the neatherd’s hut to watch the cooking of the cakes—that
they were baked in the embers of burnt wood upon the hearth.

In many parts of Europe they still use a sort of cake-bread or rolls
instead of loaves; and in some parts of northern Germany and Russia the
bread of the peasants is nearly black, and is so coarse and sour that few
English people could eat it, especially as it is kept till it grows quite
hard, and sometimes has to be cut with a saw.

The Eastern nations understood the use of ovens, however, and the Jews
especially were very good Bakers, as were probably the Egyptians, for we
read of Pharaoh’s Baker, whose dream Joseph interpreted. The trade of
baking was held in very high esteem amongst the nations of antiquity, and
included not only the making of bread, but of those cakes and sweetmeats
of which all Oriental people, and some European people too, are so
fond. By reading the history of the Jews and the Egyptians we learn that
fermented or leavened bread was in common use amongst them, at a very
early period of their history, so that the pulse-eating people, or the
people of Europe who could only eat grain made into porridge, or simply
cooked, were for a long time behind the Orientals in this respect. It
was not till 600 years after the establishment of the Roman state that
a public bakery was opened in Rome itself, and before this time, which
was about 167 years before the birth of Christ, all the baking and bread
making was done, amongst the rest of the family cooking, in the kitchens
of private houses.

When the public bakeries were established, however, those who followed
the trade were held in great respect, and a code of laws was made to
regulate the manner in which their business should be conducted. The
same importance was given to the trade in England, when Bakers first set
up business in the large towns, and people began to buy their loaves
instead of making them at home. The early statutes and laws place Bakers
above mere handicraftsmen, and ranked them with gentlemen, and very
severe punishments were inflicted on fraudulent Bakers, who neglected
to mark their loaves so that “wheaten” bread might be distinguished
from “household;” the same laws condemned that Baker to the pillory who
gave short weight, even by so much as the fraction of an ounce, and the
bakehouses were placed under the control of the magistrates.

There are many people who think that some such stringent laws might be
usefully employed now, and there can be no doubt that the Baker has too
many opportunities of adulterating his bread, or sending short weight:
the first seriously injuring the health, and the second the pockets,
of his customers. One of the worst features of the Baker’s trade in our
time, however, is the dirty condition of the bakehouses and places where
bread is made, the filthy habits which such places give rise to, and the
very long hours during which journeymen Bakers are at work. All these
matters have lately been made the subject of inquiry, and it may be hoped
that they will be greatly improved.

[Illustration: Egg Whisk. Flour Basket and Scoop. Egg Brush.]

[Illustration: Sieve. Brush. Rasp. Cleaning Net. Paste Cutter. Biscuit
Marker. Knife. Iron Peel. Wooden Peel.]

The tools that are used in most bakeries are, beside the _oven_, where
the bread is baked, and the _kneading trough_, in which the dough is
mixed: a _seasoning tub_ for mixing other ingredients to be mingled with
the dough, a _wire sieve_ for sifting the flour, and a _seasoning sieve_
made of tin pierced with small holes; a _flour basket_ lined with tin,
and a _flour scoop_, a _pail_, a _bowl_, a _salt-bin_, which should be
near the oven, a _yeast tub_, a _dough knife_, _scales_ and _weights_
for weighing the dough before it is moulded into a loaf, a _scraper_ for
removing the dough from the trough and the board where the loaves are
shaped, wooden and iron _peels_, a sort of shovels with long handles,
for placing the bread in the oven or removing loaves, dishes and cakes,
after they are baked, a _rasp_, like a coarse broad file with a bent
handle, for rasping off any portion of burnt crust; a _dusting brush_ for
sweeping away refuse of flour or dust from the boards where the loaves
are made or placed after baking, an _egg whisk_ for beating eggs used in
pastry, and an _egg brush_ for putting a glazing of egg on the outside of
buns or cakes, differently shaped _tins_ or _moulds_ for rolls or other
articles of fancy bakery, coarse squares of _baize_ or _flannel_ for
covering the dough or the newly-made bread, and a _scuttle_, _swabber_,
or _cleaning net_, made of a quantity of rough netting fastened on the
end of a pole, and which, after being wetted, is used for the final
removal of all dirt from the oven just before “setting the batch,” or
placing the loaves for baking. Beside these there are in most bakehouses
_set ups_, or oblong pieces of beech wood, to be placed in the oven for
the purpose of keeping the loaves in their places.

[Illustration: Tin for French Rolls. Tin for Sponge Cakes.]

[Illustration: Scales and Weights.]

It would be impossible to give instructions here how to make the various
sorts of bread, but the ordinary kind sold by London Bakers is made much
in the following way:—

Suppose that the Baker desires to make up a sack of flour; he empties it
into the kneading trough, and then proceeds to sift it, in order to make
it lie more lightly and to break up any lumps.

He then takes from eight to ten pounds of potatoes and boils them,
without removing the skins, afterwards mashing them in the seasoning tub,
with about half the quantity of flour, and adding a couple of pails of
water. To this mixture he pours about two quarts of yeast, made from the
liquor of boiled hops, malt, and patent yeast already made and sold for
the purpose. This is the leaven, which makes the difference between bread
and meal-cake, or the English loaf and the Australian “damper,” which
is made only of flour and water, and baked at a bush fire; the yeast or
leaven is, in fact, meal in its early state of decomposition.

This mixture then is left in the seasoning tub, covered with a sack for
several hours, and allowed to ferment. Then the Baker separates about
a quarter of the flour in the trough by means of a board, and piles it
up at one end apart from the larger quantity, and it is upon this that
he pours the contents of the seasoning tub, taking care that it passes
through a sieve placed on a couple of sticks across the trough.

This portion upon which the liquor has been poured is called the
_sponge_, and he proceeds to “set it” by thoroughly mixing, and finally
giving it a dust of flour at the top, after which it is kept for five or
six hours, or until it has twice “risen,” or puffed out by means of the
fermenting liquor within it.

Just as it has risen a second time, and air bubbles are breaking through
it to the surface, about three more pailfuls of water are poured upon
it, and in this water about three pounds of salt have been dissolved;
this is well mixed with the sponge, and then, the board being removed,
the sponge and the rest of the flour is worked into one mass. It is this
kneading and breaking up the sponge which is the hard labour of the
Baker, and that it is hard labour may be known from the fact that he
works nearly naked, and that, as he lifts and pummels the tenacious mass,
he heaves great sighs and groans like those with which paviors ram down
the stones in the roads. In many of the best bakehouses now a machine is
used, which supersedes this manual labour; the mass of dough being placed
in a cylinder, within which an axle fitted with bent blades, or arms of
iron, revolves, passing through and through the dough as it moves from
end to end.

By another system (that of Dr. Dauglish) the use of yeast is dispensed
with, and the bread, made by machinery, is leavened by carbonic acid
gas, which is forced into the cylinder after the atmospheric air is
pumped out, and so goes through the dough and produces the results of
fermentation.

The dough having been thoroughly mixed in the trough, is left for an hour
or two to “prove,” and then, after being sprinkled with flour to prevent
its sticking, is thrown out upon a board, or the lid of the next trough,
and cut into pieces which are weighed, and afterwards moulded into
loaves. The moulding is only learnt by practice. The piece of dough is
cut in half and shaped according to the kind of loaf required, one piece
forming the top of the loaf, being laid in a hollow of that which is to
be the bottom, and the joint made by a skilful turn of the knuckles.
The loaves are placed in the oven by means of the peel, and are packed
at the back and sides as closely as possible, the cottage bread only
being separate, that it may be crusted all round. The batch takes about
two hours to bake. Biscuits are now mostly made by machinery, which in
large establishments turns them out ready for the oven; but when they are
wholly or partially made by hand, the dough is prepared and afterwards
moulded into shapes, and each shape pricked with the _docker_, before
being placed in the oven.

[Illustration: Cornfield.]




THE SUGAR REFINER.

[Illustration: BOILING HOUSE.]


Although sugar was known from very early times, it was used only in
medicine, and was supposed to be a sort of honey found upon canes in
India and Arabia. It is frequently mentioned by the very early writers.
The culture of the canes seems to have been confined to the islands
of the Indian Archipelago, and the kingdoms of Bengal, Siam, &c. The
traffic in sugar was so lucrative that the Indians concealed the mode
of preparing it, stating to the merchants of Ormus, who imported it
with gums and spices, that it was extracted from a reed, whereupon many
unsuccessful attempts were made to find it in the reed-like plants of
Arabia. In 1250 the great discoverer, Marco Polo, visited the country of
the sugar cane, and the merchants afterwards sent to the place of its
growth, instead of buying it at Ormus. For a long period the use of sugar
in England was confined to medicines, or to preparing choice dishes at
feasts; and this continued till 1580, when it was brought from Brazil to
Portugal, and thence to our country.

Cultivators distinguish three great varieties of canes—the Creole, the
Batavian, and the Otaheite. The Creole cane is indigenous to India, and
was transplanted thence to Sicily, the Canary Isles, the Antilles, South
America, and to the West Indies. It has dark green leaves, and a thin
but very knotty stem. The Batavian or striped cane, which has a dense
foliage, and is covered with purpled stripes, is a native of Java, where
it is chiefly cultivated for the manufacture of rum; it is also met
with in some parts of the New World and the West Indies. The Otaheite
variety grows most luxuriantly, is the most juicy, and yields the largest
product. It is cultivated chiefly in the West Indies and South America;
it ripens in ten months, and is hardier than the other varieties.

The sugar cane, being originally a bog-plant requires a moist, nutritive
soil, and a hot tropical or sub-tropical climate. It is propagated by
slips or pieces of the stem, with buds on them, and about two feet long.
It arrives at maturity in twelve or sixteen months, according to the
temperature; the leaves fall off towards the following season, and the
stem acquires a straw-yellow colour. The cane is cut by some planters
before the flowering season, but it is more usual to cut it some weeks
after. The plantations are so arranged that the various divisions of
the fields may ripen in succession. The land should be supplied with
manure rich in nitrogen, but not containing much saline matter. After the
harvest the roots strike again, and produce a fresh crop of canes; but in
about six years they require to be removed.

The time for cutting the canes varies with the soil and season, and the
different varieties of cane. In a state of maturity the canes are from
six feet to fifteen feet in length, and from one and a half inch to
two inches in diameter. The usual signs of maturity are a dry, smooth,
brittle skin, a heavy cane, a grey pith, and sweet and glutinous juice.
Canes should be cut in dry weather, or the juice will be found diluted
with an excess of water. When cut they are tied up in bundles, and
conveyed to the crushing mill, particular attention being paid that
the supply should not exceed the demand, otherwise the cut canes would
ferment and spoil.

The sugar cane grows from pieces or slips of itself, containing germs,
and these develop rootlets at the joints, which draw sustenance to
the young shoot as it increases. In the course of time the buds in
the radicle, or root-joints of the first cane, throw out roots, and
form a radicle for a second stem; and in this way, under favourable
circumstances, several canes are produced from the parent stock for
a period of about six years, and sometimes for several more. They,
however, diminish every year in length of joint and circumference, and
are inferior in appearance to the original plant; but they yield richer
juice, and produce finer sugar.

[Illustration: Filtering Bag.]

The sugar exists in the cells of the cane in a state of solution, and
is extracted therefrom by pressure. With this, as with other branches
of industry, science has of late years stepped in, and has greatly
facilitated the process of extraction and manufacture. It may be as well
to give here a summary of the processes employed in the preparation of
raw sugar: The canes are passed through the mill, and the juice thus
extracted from them runs from the mill into a tank, whence it is pumped
to cisterns for supplying the _clarifiers_, heated by steam, where it
is purified. From thence it is run into _bag filters_, by which the
mechanical impurities are removed. It is then run into _charcoal filters_
to remove the colouring matter of the juice. The filtered juice is then
run off into tanks and is drawn thence by vacuum into the _vacuum pan_,
where it is granulated, and from whence it is finally discharged for
packing. When the steam clarifiers are not employed the cane juice is run
into a series of pans or _teaches_ over open fires. This apparatus is
also known as a “battery,” and forms another method of purification.

[Illustration: Stirring Rod. Ladle. Scraper. Crowbar Wrench.]

The original crushing apparatus of India was a kind of squeezing mortar,
made out of the hollow trunk of a tamarind tree, and worked by a yoke of
oxen, the pestle or stamper being a strong beam eighteen feet long, and
rounded at the bottom so as to squeeze or crush the canes in the mortar.
Mills similar to those used for crushing oil seeds were used—as were also
several other forms of apparatus—before rollers were introduced. Stone
and iron rollers were first used, with the axes in a vertical position,
but the horizontal was soon found to be the more convenient and
economical. The importance of a systematic mechanical arrangement appears
to have awakened attention during the reign of Charles the Second, for
in 1663, Lord Willoughby and Lawrence Hyde (second son of Edward, Earl
of Clarendon, High Chancellor of England) associated themselves with
one David de Marcato, an inventor, and obtained a patent for twenty-one
years for making and framing sugar mills. In 1691, John Tizack patented
an engine for milling sugar canes, &c.; but in this, as in the previous
case, it is not specified how the mill should be made. Later on in 1721,
William Harding, a smith, of London, who had been many years in Jamaica,
and was skilled in the manufacture of sugar mills, having observed their
imperfections, how that they were chiefly made with large wooden cogs
cased with iron, endeavoured while abroad to improve their construction,
but failed for want of competent workmen. On his return to London he
made models of sugar mills which were approved by the Royal Society.
These mills were fitted with cast iron rollers and cog wheel gearing,
and were worked by water power; from description they appear to be the
type of mills of the present day. Some forty-five years later, Yonge and
Barclay, ironfounders, of Allhallowslane, City, applied friction wheels
to sugar mills. In 1773, John Fleming, a mill carpenter, proposed an
arrangement of windmill sails which turned a vertical timber shaft shod
with iron, and which gave motion to two hard wooden rollers, between
which the cane was guided and squeezed. In 1807, H. C. Newman, of St.
Christopher, West Indies, designed a mill to be worked by horse power. He
used cog and crown wheels to give motion to three upright rollers, and
the arrangement was considered one which greatly augmented the power
and execution of this class of machinery. In 1821, John Collinge, of
Lambeth, improved cast iron sugar mills by casting the rollers on wrought
iron shafts, instead of keying them on, as previously done. In 1840,
James Robinson patented improvements in sugar mills, which consisted in
using four rollers, one large one and three smaller ones beneath, placed
horizontally, and gearing by cogs into each other. Up to that time three
rollers only appear to have been used. He also proposed to use six
rollers, which are fed from an endless band passing over the rollers. He
cast the rollers and shafts in one piece, cored out to admit steam to
facilitate the extraction of the juice from the cane during crushing.
He also proposed to tin the interior of vacuum pans, &c. Various other
arrangements have been patented, but it is unnecessary here to enumerate,
much less to describe, them. The foregoing examples give an idea of the
progress of the subject during nearly two hundred years. The last ten
years have seen rapid strides made in improving the make of mills, and
the general arrangement of sugar works.

[Illustration: Sparla. Trowel. Chisel. Hammer. Loosening Stove. Crowbar
Hammer. Scoop for filling Moulds.]

Cane juice, as expressed by the mill, is an opaque, slightly viscid
fluid, of a dull grey, olive, or olive green colour, and of a sweet balmy
taste. The juice is so exceedingly fermentable that, in the climate of
the West Indies, it would often run into the acetous fermentation in
twenty minutes after leaving the mill, if the process of clarifying were
not immediately commenced.

The processes followed in the West Indies for separating the sugar
from the juice are as follows: The juice is conducted by channels from
the mill to large flat-bottomed _clarifiers_, which contain from three
hundred to a thousand gallons each. When the clarifier is filled with
juice, a little slaked lime is added to it; and when the liquor in
the clarifier becomes hot by a fire underneath, the solid portions of
the cane juice coagulate, and are thrown up in the form of scum. The
clarified juice, which is bright, clear, and of a yellow wine colour, is
transferred to the largest of a series of evaporating coppers or pans,
three or more in number, in which it is reduced in bulk by boiling; it
is transferred from one pan to another, and heated until the sugar is
brought to the state of a soft mass of crystals imbedded in molasses—a
thick, viscid, and uncrystallizable fluid. The soft concrete sugar is
removed from the coolers into a range of casks, in which the molasses
gradually drains from the crystalline portion, percolating through spongy
plantain stalks placed in a hole at the bottom of each cask, which act
as so many drains to convey the liquid to a large cistern beneath. With
sugar of average quality, three or four weeks is sufficient for this
purpose. The liquid portion constitutes molasses, which is employed to
make rum. The crystallized portion is packed in hogsheads for shipment as
raw, brown, or muscovado sugar; and in this state it is commonly exported
from our West Indian colonies.

[Illustration: Besom. Lump Mould. Loaf Mould.]

The refining of sugar is mainly a bleaching process, conducted on a large
scale in England. There are two varieties produced by this bleaching,
viz. clayed and loaf sugar. For clayed sugar, the sugar is removed from
the coolers into conical earthen moulds called formes, each of which has
a small hole at the apex. These holes being stopped up, the forms are
placed apex downwards in other earthen vessels. The syrup, after being
stirred round, is left for from fifteen to twenty hours to crystallize.
The plugs are then withdrawn, to let out the uncrystallized syrup; and
the base of the crystallized loaf being removed, the forme is filled up
with pulverized white sugar.

This is well pressed down, and then a quantity of clay mixed with water
is placed upon the sugar, the formes being put into fresh empty pots.

The moisture from the clay, filtering through the sugar, carries with
it a portion of the colouring matter, which is more soluble than the
crystals themselves. By a repetition of this process, the sugar attains
nearly a white colour, and is then dried and crushed for sale.

But loaf sugar is the kind most usually produced by the refining
processes. The brown sugar is dissolved with hot water, and then filtered
through canvas bags, from which it exudes as a clear, transparent, though
reddish syrup. The removal of this red tinge is effected by filtering the
syrup through a mass of powdered charcoal, and we have then a perfectly
transparent colourless liquid.

In the evaporation or concentration of the clarified syrup, which forms
the next part of the refining process, the boiling is effected (under the
admirable system introduced by Mr. Howard) in a vacuum, at a temperature
of about 140° Fahrenheit. The sugar pan is a large copper vessel, with
arrangements for extracting the air, admitting the syrup, admitting
steam pipes, and draining off the sugar when concentrated. In using the
pan a quantity of syrup is admitted, and an air pump is set to work to
extract all the air from the pan, in order that the contents may boil
at a low temperature. The evaporation proceeds, and when completed the
evaporated syrup flows out of the pan through a pipe into an open vessel
beneath, called the _granulating vessel_, around which steam circulates,
and within which the syrup is brought to a partially crystallized state.
From the granulators the syrup or sugar is transferred into moulds of a
conical form, which were formerly made of coarse pottery, but are now
usually of iron. In these moulds the sugar whitens and crystallizes, the
remaining uncrystallized syrup flowing out at an opening at the bottom
of the moulds. This syrup is reboiled with raw sugar, so as to yield an
inferior quality of sugar; and, when all the crystallizable matter has
been extracted from it, the remainder is sold as treacle. The loaves of
sugar, after a few finishing processes, are ready for sale.




THE DYER AND SCOURER.

[Illustration: DYERS AT WORK.]


The trade of the Dyer may be placed amongst the most ancient of the arts,
and the tools that are used in it are so few that they need scarcely any
description, since almost all the apparatus required are the various
coppers, vats, and other vessels used for boiling the fabrics to be dyed,
and immersing them completely in the liquors which have been prepared
from the dye stuffs, the proper use of which is the principal secret
in the business. With regard to the scouring or cleaning of fabrics,
whether made into garments or not, the operation consists in applying
detergents, or substances like soap and turpentine, for removing grease
and dirt, or other liquids which have a detergent property but will not
injure the colours; the use of these, with a _sponge_ and a _hard brush_,
is nearly all that is required; the garment sent to be cleaned being
stretched on a _frame_ and dried, either in the dyer’s _drying room_,
or in some open situation, where they are least likely to be soiled or
spotted.

[Illustration: Drying Room. Sponge. Hard Brush.]

The art of dyeing was practised to a very great extent by the ancient
Egyptians, Phœnicians, Greeks, and Romans; and the island of Tyre was,
in very early times, celebrated for a purple dye which was, perhaps from
its costliness, used for colouring the robes of kings and emperors, from
which practice purple became the imperial colour.

[Illustration: Garment Frame.]

The art of modern dyeing very greatly consists in the proper use of what
are called mordants, that is, substances which, although they do not
of themselves produce colour, so act upon the dyes as to cause them to
give an intenser hue to the fabric, and also serve to make the colour
permanent. The modern dyers have obtained several dye drugs unknown to
the ancients, such as cochineal, quercitron, Brazil and logwood, arnotts,
and indigo, which was only known to the Romans as a paint; but the vast
superiority of our dyes must be principally ascribed to the employment of
alum and solution of tin mixed with other substances as mordants, which
give depth, durability, and lustre to the colours. Another improvement in
dyeing is the application of metallic compounds, such as Prussian blue,
chrome yellow, and manganese brown, to textile or woven fabrics.

Our readers will see from what has been said of mordants how what are
called fast colours are obtained, fast colours meaning colours which
will not be affected even by the liquor of the dye bath. Another very
necessary subject of information in relation to dyeing is the fact that
different substances, such as silk and wool, will not be equally affected
by the dye in which they are placed, since the particles contained in the
composition of these substances have different degrees of what is called
affinity, that is, they combine in a greater or less degree with the
component matter of the dye stuff.

[Illustration: Vats and Copper Pan. Wringing Machine.]

We have already said something of the preparation of cotton. The
operations to which silk and wool are subjected before being dyed are
intended to separate superfluous substances from the animal fibre, and
to make that fibre more easily unite with the colouring particles.

Silk is scoured by means of being boiled in water and soap, whereby
the animal varnish is removed from the surface; if intended to be very
white, it is bleached by humid sulphurous acid. Wool is first washed in
running water to separate its coarse impurities, and is then freed from
the greasy animal matter secreted from the skin of the sheep by means of
ammoniacal liquor, soap and water, or a solution of soda. It is finally
bleached by the fumes of burning sulphur, or by aqueous sulphuric acid.

[Illustration: Dipping Copper, Winch, Punching, &c.]

What are called tinctorial colours, as distinguished from mordants, are
either simple or compound. The simple are black, brown or dun, blue,
yellow, and red; the compounds are grey, purple, green, orange, and
others.

Gall nuts, pyrolignite of iron, logwood, copperas, and verdigris, are the
chief materials for producing black. Walnuts, sumach, madder, cochineal,
cudbear, acetate of iron, catechu, Brazil wood, arnotts, are all employed
in producing brown. Indigo, Prussian blue, and woad for blue. Fustic,
Persian berries, quercitron, turmeric, and weld for yellow. Cudbear,
Brazil wood, cochineal, kermes, lac, logwood, madder, safflower, for red;
and various compounds for purple, green, orange, &c.

[Illustration: Carboy for Spirits. Syphon. Puncheon. Pole for Stirring.]

The dye materials imported from foreign countries are principally
cochineal, fustic, gum arabic, gum senegal, gum animi, gum copal, gum
tragacanth, indigo, lac dye, shellac, logwood, madder, smalts, valonia,
yellow berries, and zaffre. The tools shown in the engravings explain
themselves, and, as has been already said, principally consist of the
various coppers and vats, the _syphons_ or tubes by which liquor will
flow from one vessel to another, and the _puncheons_, for stirring and
thoroughly immersing the articles in the dye stuff.

[Illustration: Rail. Thermometer and Measure. Measure.]




THE COPPERSMITH.

[Illustration: WORKSHOP.]


The very great variety of purposes for which the metal called copper is
used, renders it one of the most valuable productions of this country,
and several very important manufactures would be incomplete without
it, since it is the principal material of which many large vessels are
formed, and is also largely employed as an alloy for other metals.
Although the metal is sometimes found in a pure or native state, its most
abundant ore is that known as copper pyrites, of which there are many
kinds. The most common yellow copper ore is a very abundant mineral,
found in large quantities in Cornwall, Devon, and the Isle of Anglesea,
and is a compound of about equal parts of copper, iron, and sulphur. The
mines of Devon and Cornwall yield more than three-fourths of the copper
obtained in England, or about 190,000 tons of ore in a year, the value of
which is above a million sterling. The amount of copper annually obtained
in the United Kingdom is about 15,000 tons, worth more than a million and
a half of money. About the same quantity is imported into this country
from Chili and Cuba, and a very valuable copper ore is also found at the
Burra Burra mines in Australia.

The copper ores of Cornwall and other parts of the country are generally
shipped to Swansea, where coal is abundant, in order to be separated from
the metal. For this purpose the ore is heated to redness, or roasted in
an open furnace, in order to burn away the sulphur, and the fumes given
out by this process are most pernicious. The ore is afterwards melted
several times to separate the other impurities, which, when fused, float
like scum on the surface of the liquid metal, and are then easily removed.

Copper has a peculiar reddish colour, and will bear a brilliant polish;
its smell and taste are both disagreeable. It is one of the most
malleable of metals, and can be so readily worked by the hammer that it
is beaten out into thin leaves, which, under the name of “Dutch metal,”
are employed in ornamenting toys, &c. in imitation of gilding.

It is also so ductile that it can be drawn out into finer wires than any
ordinary metal, except gold, silver, and iron, and its tenacity is so
great that a wire one-tenth of an inch in diameter will bear a weight
of 175 lbs. This wire is very flexible, and not very elastic, but when
rolled into sheets copper is one of the most elastic, and when struck
one of the most vibratory and loud sounding metals.

If taken into the animal system all preparations of copper are violent
poisons; and, as this metal is directly acted upon by vinegar and other
acids, it should not be employed for making vessels used in cooking or
preparing food.

The easy malleability of copper allows it to be rolled into thin sheets,
which can easily be hammered into any form that may be desired, and it is
this operation which belongs to the trade of the Coppersmith.

Sheet copper is employed in covering the bottoms of ships, to protect
them from the attacks of marine animals; it is also used for coins, which
are punched out of the sheet of metal and stamped with dies, and for
plates on which pictures are engraved; the metal being soft enough to
yield to the tool of the engraver, but yet sufficiently hard to resist
the pressure necessary to print the picture.

As an ingredient in alloys copper is most valuable, especially in bell
metal, which is composed of three parts of copper and one part of tin;
in bronze, which is nine-tenths copper and one-tenth tin; and in German
silver, argentine, nickel silver, and other alloys used for making forks,
spoons, dishes, &c. which are composed of copper, zinc, and nickel. These
are very beautiful alloys, closely resembling silver; but the copper they
contain is liable to be partially dissolved by any long exposure to the
action of acids.

Copper is used in small quantities as an alloy for gold and silver both
in coinage and in plate, to give the requisite degree of hardness. Gold
used for coins, or what is called standard gold, is formed of eleven
parts of pure gold and one part of copper. Being a better conductor
of electricity than any other metal, it is largely employed in the
formation of telegraphic wires; and, as it is not hard enough to strike
fire with flint or grit, it is used in gunpowder mills and magazines
instead of iron.

The processes of casting and rolling copper into sheets are so much like
those already described in the manufacture of iron that they need not be
repeated, but the trade of the Coppersmith is distinct from those of the
workers in other metals, though they mostly consist in forming the sheet
copper into various shapes and utensils by means of _hammers_, of which
the _smoothing hammer_, the _set hammer_, and the _riveting hammer_,
explain their own uses by their names.

[Illustration: Copper Bit. Oval Wedge. Riveting Hammer. Smoothing Hammer.
Cob Hammer. Set Hammer.]

In manufacturing the large vessels with circular bottoms which are so
frequently made of copper, the metal is first cast in a shape resembling
a round spectacle glass, that is to say, a flat cake, thick in the middle
and gradually diminishing in thickness towards the edge. It is then
subjected to the powerful blows of a tilt hammer, the beating being
principally confined to the centre. The effect of this is not only to
reduce the thickness of the copper, but to cause the disc to turn up at
the edges and assume the form of a hollow dish.

[Illustration: Punches. Hand Vice. Cutting Punch. Spanner. Anvil. Shears
for Sheet Copper. Hand Shears.]

Another operation of the Coppersmith is called _planishing_, or hammering
the metal until it becomes more dense, firm, and tough; any one who
looks at the surface of a large copper vessel will see the marks of the
hammer by which it has been planished.

It is by the combined operation of casting, rolling, hammering, and
planishing, as well as by the processes of fastening, either with
_rivets_ or with _solder_, that nearly all copper articles are made.

[Illustration: Plumber’s Iron. Iron Horse. Pouncing Block and Hammer.]

Of the tools used by the Coppersmith, beside those already mentioned,
the principal are _punches_ for cutting or piercing holes, _shears_ for
cutting the sheets of metal, the _spanner_ for turning heads of screws or
nuts, the _anvil_, the _blocks_ and _horses_ for receiving the work in
such a position as to operate on any part where the hammer or the punch
is required, and the _iron_ for soldering. There are five different modes
of forming copper piping out of sheet metal; in the first the edges of
the sheet, which is curved round a mandril, are made to meet without
overlapping, and are joined with hard solder; in the second they overlap
and are united by soft solder; in the third they overlap and are secured
by rivets; in the fourth the edges are folded one over the other, and are
made close and firm by hammering; and in the fifth both edges of the pipe
are turned back and covered with a strip of sheet metal, the two edges of
which are turned in and hammered down.

[Illustration: Wood Horse.]




THE GUN MANUFACTURER.

[Illustration: THE PROOF HOUSE.]


By guns, only muskets, rifles, and fowling-pieces are here meant, since
the manufacture of cannons, to which the term guns is now commonly
applied, is an entirely different business to that of making what are
called “small arms;” the latter including, in fact, swords, pistols,
bayonets, muskets, rifles, and some other implements of war. There are
so many varieties of fire arms, and they are sold at prices varying
so greatly, that it would be almost impossible to give any detailed
description of each kind of piece. The finely-finished rifle or sporting
gun, fitted with the last improvements, breech-loading or otherwise, and
finished with marvellous perfection and accuracy, is worth four times as
many pounds as the common muskets, made for exportation to Africa for
the use of the natives, are worth shillings. We may, therefore, describe
some of the ordinary processes of the gunmaker’s trade, and the various
improvements will then be better understood when the reader has an
opportunity of seeing finished guns, in which such improvements may be
pointed out to him.

The barrels of guns are either plain or twisted; twisted barrels are made
of long and very narrow strips of iron, one of which, being moderately
heated to increase pliancy, is wrapped spirally round a cylindrical
mandril in such a way as to form a tube, which may be slipped off the
mandril at pleasure. As the rods are not usually made of sufficient
length for one to form a barrel, several are usually joined end to end,
those which form the breech being thicker than those at the muzzle end.
By heating and hammering these pieces are welded into a continuous and
very strong and tough tube.

Partially worn iron, called “scrap iron,” is best for these purposes.
The twisted barrels which are known as “wire twist” are formed of narrow
rods of iron and steel forged together, and then rolled out to the proper
thinness.

Damascus barrels are composed of similar metal, but the rods are twisted
on their own centres until the fibres which they contain have from twelve
to fourteen turns in an inch by which the rods are doubled in thickness
and proportionately reduced in length. Two such rods are welded together
side by side, their respective twists being reversed. There are many
modes of making twisted barrels, but these are the most common.

After being welded, the barrels are carefully examined, and, if needful,
straightened by a few blows of the hammer. They are then bored in a
machine with an angular plug of tempered steel, which is caused to
revolve rapidly within the barrel, while a stream of water is directed
upon the outside to check the heat caused by the tremendous friction.
The outside is brought to a smooth surface either by grinding on a large
grindstone, or turning in a lathe. The breech end of the barrel is bored
with a screw-thread, to receive the breech plug, which closes it at that
end.

[Illustration: Mandril, with Damascus Barrel in progress. Tool for boring
Barrel. Testing Barrel.]

The barrels are then proved by being fired at the _proof-house_, a
large building where they are loaded with a charge five times as great
as they will have to bear when in use. A great number of barrels are
fired at once by laying them upon a strong framework of wood with their
touch-holes downwards, and connected with a train of gunpowder which
is ignited outside the building. A heap of sand is piled inside the
building, opposite the muzzles of the barrels to receive the bullets.
Those which bear this test without injury are marked as perfect.

Guns used in field sports are often made with two barrels fixed side by
side upon one stock. The barrels are made separately, and each with one
flat side, that they may lie close together. They are secured together by
ribs running between them from end to end.

The wooden stock upon which the barrel is fixed is generally made of
walnut-tree wood. It is first shaped, and afterwards shod with brass or
steel; the trigger guard and other fittings are let into the wood, and
every part is furnished with the proper screws and fastenings.

With regard to the manufacture of rifles and other small arms in general,
the author of the present work some time ago wrote a description of a
visit to the factory at Birmingham known as the Toledo Works, and it may
be useful to give an extract from that account of what he saw there.

The steel from which the swords are made is supplied in long pieces
somewhat tapering at the ends, and having a square portion in the
middle, which, being cut through, leaves material for two blades, the
bisection of the square leaving a shoulder at one end to receive the
iron “tang” by which the blade is afterwards fixed into the handle. The
manufacture of these blades is almost entirely effected by the forgers,
who hammer them into the required shape upon the anvil, a mould running
down the centre of which secures the hollow which in swords extends for
about two-thirds of the length from hilt to point. In a little street
of smithies the musical clink is being sounded by a score of stalwart
arms, either forging the rough steel into form, or hammering the formed
blade into perfect shape and symmetry, an operation which requires it to
be kept at a certain heat, lest the embryo blade should be injured in
the process. Once perfected as to proportion, the hardening commences,
and the blade is thrust backwards and forwards into the furnace until
it has acquired a proper and uniform heat, at which point it is removed
and instantly plunged into cold water. This process, which has obviously
suggested the Turkish bath, renders it hard indeed, but at the same
time so extremely brittle that we whisperingly suggest the propriety
of contracting to supply our enemies with weapons, and neglecting to
carry them beyond that particular stage of preparation, when they may
be snapped with the fingers. Carefully supported, however, the blade is
again subjected to the fiery ordeal until it attains a slaty blue colour,
and a beautiful and elastic temper, which has been partially secured by
the previous hammering. By the process of forging it has become about
six inches longer than the pristine steel shape, and by the tempering it
has attained a springy strength which enables it to be bent in a curve
sufficient to bring the hand five inches nearer to the point than when
the blade is straight.

Many of the best bayonets are forged in the same way as the sword-blades,
and, as in almost every manufacturing process, human intelligence has
an unmistakable advantage over mere mechanical force, these possess
some superior qualities. The greater number of bayonets, however,
are made from a square bar of drawn steel, five inches and a half
long by nine-sixteenths square. This bar is passed between a series
of about sixteen pairs of rollers, which are worked by steam power,
and so grooved as gradually to mould the blade to the required shape.
Sixteen times the short steel bar undergoes the merciless pressure of a
progressively-increased power, until its length is increased from five
and a half to twenty-six inches, when some portion is cut off from the
point to leave it the regulation length.

The matchets, which are made from bevel-edged steel, passed twice through
the rollers, are cut into the requisite shape by means of powerful shears.

[Illustration: Steam Hammer.]

These operations are conducted in a large shed, where the rollers stand
like awful combinations of infernal machines and patent mangles; where
a boding and vengeful tilt-hammer, worked by steam, is tended by a man,
who sits like a calm fate beside its crushing bulk, and supplies it with
fresh victims; where the awful boom seems to shatter the very atmosphere,
and deafness reigns triumphant. In obedience to a signal, however, the
monster is suddenly stopped, and we are enabled to hear that the great
two-pot furnace on our left is used for making the steel from those long
laths of bevel-edged iron stacked against the wall; that the furnace is
constructed with wide flues on each side and under the bottom, while
the fire-grate occupies the centre between the two pots; that the pots
themselves are some four feet deep, and two feet and a half wide, are
airtight, contain layers of charcoal and iron covered with loam sand,
will remain seven days and nights in the furnace, until their contents
are white hot, and that at the end of that time the iron will have been
converted into steel of a slaty-blue colour. The inexorable hammer
resuming its work at this point, we follow the bayonet to its completion,
and once more visit the forges, to witness the “shutting on” or welding
the blade to a piece of iron, which ultimately forms the socket by which
the bayonet itself is fixed on to the barrel of the rifle or musket.

There is yet another operation before the blades are taken to the
finishing shop, one of the most important, too, since it is no other than
grinding, a process which secures an exact and uniform thickness and
increases their elasticity.

We are standing at the open end of a long, vast, and gloomy shed-like
building, supported by iron pillars. On each side through the entire
length a series of enormous grindstones spin round amidst sand and water,
and the mud from both. Seated astride the bodies of wooden horses, whose
heads seem to have been transformed into these wheels, the grinders
seize upon the blades, and each fearless rider rising in his stirrups,
or, what looks much the same, standing tiptoe till he no longer touches
his saddle, throws himself forward, and presses the sword, matchet, or
bayonet on the wheel, at the same time guiding it deftly with its left
hand, till its whole surface has been smoothly ground.

Along the whole line of whirling stones fly the lurid red sparks, and the
grinders, with squared elbows, seem to curb the struggling and impetuous
wheels.

After polishing, which is completed by wooden wheels bearing a coating
of leather covered with emery, the swords and matchets go to receive
handles, and the bayonets locking rings. The handles of swords are made
of walnut-wood covered with the skin of the dogfish, while the hilt and
guard are formed from a plain flat sheet of steel, in shape not unlike
one side of a pair of bellows.

The solid socket of the bayonet is hammered into form, and afterwards
stamped into shape with the rim complete, from which process it is
conveyed to a shop where it is drilled by steam power. It then only
remains to secure a smooth surface, by means of a revolving barrel,
containing an instrument with a number of flanged blades, against which
the socket of the bayonet is pressed. It is not a little remarkable to
see the solid steel pared and shaved like wax, and no less wonderful to
notice the simple machinery by which it is accomplished. The locking
rings are stamped out by a lever and die, pierced by a punch, and
afterwards “bored,” “faced,” and their shapes secured by a triple
circular saw, worked by a lathe.

[Illustration: Mandril, with Common Musket Barrel in progress. Welding by
Hand. Forging Hammer.]

The most important manufacture in the Toledo Works, however, is assuredly
rifles, and, with the intention of following it through its principal
processes, we return to the vicinity of the still inveterate hammer,
where we are shown a rudimentary barrel in the shape of a slab of best
wrought iron, twelve inches long, and weighing nine pounds and a quarter.
This uninviting slab is heated in a furnace, and roughly bent into the
tubular shape by means of our enemy the tilt-hammer, after which it is
once more placed in a furnace of an enormously high temperature, with a
small trap-opening. When sufficiently heated, the short rudimentary tube
is taken out on a long round iron rod, fitted with a hand-guard, and
looking like a huge burlesque rapier. This rod approximates to the size
of the intended bore of the barrel, and is inserted, with the rough tube
upon it, between two steam rollers, each of which is furnished with a
series of corresponding grooves or cuts. The barrel, which is taken up
at one end by a rod, is placed between the first pair of grooves, and,
as the rollers revolve, is drawn out at the other side, a long, hollow,
welded tube. This much more graceful and better formed tube is then
consigned to another rod of smaller diameter, and to a corresponding pair
of grooves; until, after the eighth repetition of the same process, the
barrel has attained its proper dimensions. The next operation, which is
called “lumping,” consists of welding a piece of wrought iron on to the
breech end of the barrel, for the purpose of forming the percussion-lump,
and is succeeded by “rough-boring.” This is accomplished by a long,
sharp-ended bit, which, being placed in the end of the barrel, revolves
at the rate of, perhaps, a thousand turns a minute by means of a pulley
and fly-wheel, while the barrel is pushed on by a lever, and kept cool by
means of water thrown upon its surface.

The “setting” of the barrel is next effected by means of hammer and
anvil, the setting meaning simply rectifying any bend which it may have
received during the previous operation. We are not a little interested in
the setting, since the first intimation of it on entering the shop is the
sudden discovery of a number of workmen gazing resolutely at an opposite
window, through what look like attenuated telescopes. They are engaged,
however, in one of the processes which require the greatest experience,
as each of them is expected to detect the most trifling bias in the
barrel. The “spilling-up,” or cutting the inside of the barrel to the
proper bore, is similar to the rough-boring, except that only one edge
of the bit is allowed to operate, the others being sheathed by a half
cylinder of wood, called a _spill_; this ensures a smooth surface, and
prepares for the “fine-boring,” which is six times repeated, the final
surface being insured by keeping one edge of the bit perfectly smooth,
by which means the particles of steel drop in a fine and almost soft
powder.

The outside of the barrel is next turned in a long lathe, which not only
reduces the roughness, but, by a beautiful arrangement of cutting tools,
gives it the required substance or “pattern,” for a light or heavy rifle.

The grinding of the barrels is effected by means of stones, larger
than those used for the sword blades, but in a similar manner, and is
preliminary to “filing,” which carries the barrel to the shop, where it
is prepared for the lock.

[Illustration: Grinding Gun Barrels.]

These preparations consist of “chambering,” or making the chamber
which holds the pin; “breeching,” or cutting the worm intended for the
breech-pin, that helps to hold the barrel to the stock by means of a
breech-nail; cutting out the little slice into which the “sight” is to
be dovetailed; machining the lump; filing the tail-pin, and making the
square lump the proper shape for receiving the lock and stock.

We are not a little surprised to learn that every part of the lock is
finished by hand, the cock being cut with a die worked by a heavy weight,
and the smaller pieces being wrought with forge, hammer, and file.

[Illustration: Section of Breech. Section of Lock, &c. Bullet Mould.
Nipple Key.]

The great art in lock-making is to obtain a perfect spring, and those
properly tempered are so elastic that, although when fitted in the lock,
the two sides are so close as almost to touch, they will, when released,
spread to two inches below the edge of the lock-plate. The lock and
barrel are now ready for the stock, which awaits them in another shop,
where it has been sawn out of walnut wood, and finished by carpenters’
tools. The barrel let into its groove, and the lock properly in its
place, the stock is more perfectly shaped and rounded before “screwing
together,” or the addition of the different parts of the “furniture,”
heel-plate, trigger-plate and guard, trigger, nose-cap, rod, and bayonet.

We are now told that the rifle is “finished,” by which, understanding
_completion_, we are not quite prepared to learn that it is to be taken
to pieces.

We suddenly remember, however, that it is not yet a rifle at all,
inasmuch as it has not been rifled. Everything is made perfect before
this delicate operation is attempted, in order that no injury may be
sustained by the barrel when the complete rifle is again put together.
The process of rifling is similar to that of boring, except that a spiral
cutter is substituted for the bit. Previous to the reunion of the barrel,
the whole work is polished, and the stock stained and finished ready for
completion.

[Illustration: “Finishing.”]

The pistol barrels undergo the same processes as that of the rifle,
except that, after being drilled, they are planed, by machines which
carry them along a sort of bed under tools that cut them perfectly
smooth, and accurately shape the octagonal barrels. These chisels move
by means of screws over the entire surface as it is drawn backwards and
forwards on the slide.

The revolver chambers are drilled out of solid iron, by a drilling
machine or lathe, with a centrebit and an eccentric motion, which causes
each barrel of the chamber-nest to become the centre in succession;
while, by means of a slide, the motion can be made to suit either a large
or small chamber. The recesses communicating with the lock and trigger
are cut by reversing the chamber in the eccentric “chuck,” and using a
different cutting-tool, while another alteration effects the drilling of
the nipple holes.


THE END

R. CLAY, SON, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, BREAD STREET



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