Below is the reprint of a blog post from Sept, 2010. Of all my posts this one has brought about a fair amount of attention. However, I want to add to this post with a link to Youtube where Jack Martin shows how they make an 1850 Shaker Style broom.
Brooms have been around for eons, the question I've been trying to answer is when did the first broom factories start in America.
In 1841 in Sussex I find the listing of 65 broom-makers
A list of immigration to Missouri in 1867 listed several boom-makers
I found a disabled soldiers Broom-factory in 1875
1881 I found an expense report that line item a broom factory in a Missouri Penitentiary in 1880
And I found a grocery store owner in 1888 took payment of a broom making machine in exchange for food, then proceeded to have a very successful broom factory in the late 19th century into the 20th century. In fact, the business is still in operations today.
So, as of this moment, I do not know when the first broom factory developed in America. If you have a source with additional information, I'd love to hear it.
Below is a list of Broom & Brush Factory jobs, from the "Classified index of occupations by the United States," © 1921
Binder, broom or brush factory.
Borer, broom or brush factory.
Box maker, broom or brush factory.
Broom or brush maker, broom or brush
factory.
Broom or brush maker (not in factory).
Broom or brush maker (n. s.).
Buffer, broom or brush factory.
Buncher, broom or brush factory.
Comber, broom or brush factory.
Cutter, broom or brush factory.
Drawer, broom or brush factory.
Showing posts with label manufacturing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label manufacturing. Show all posts
Friday, February 10, 2017
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Milling Wheat
For the past year I've been buying organic whole wheat grain and grinding the wheat to make bread. The process is quite easy and the entire grain is reduced to a very fine flour that can be used in making cakes. All of that is to say, it made me wonder, how did our ancestors grind their wheat? Now, I've known about grist mills and have even visited a few but the flour from their was often course.
Here is an excerpt from The Book of Wheat written in 1908 by Peter Tracy Dondlinger. It helps to explain some of the history of the 19th century and the development of grain milling process. He goes on to explain other types of milling processes, high milling, and roller milling.
"Low" Milling.—Before 1850, the millstones in the United States were run at a comparatively low speed, and the grinding was slow. By this date the milling industry had assumed such commercial importance that it was necessary to increase the speed of the stones in order to get the work done. From 1850 to 1875, hard, low grinding was the rule, and the prime object was to make the largest possible percentage of flour at the first grinding. The change in process, due to greater speed, increased the output and improved its quality, "the outcome being a white, soft flour that met with favor in all he leading markets of the world where American winter wheat flours were handled." By this process, however, it was impossible to get the • flour entirely free from contamination, and some of the bran always remained. There were two parts to this old process, reducing the wheat to flour by passing it through a run of stones, and bolting the resulting material in order to separate the flour from the bran and other undesirable parts of the kernei. The percentage of flour obtained by this single grinding depended on four things: (1) The dress of the millstone; (2) the face of grinding surface; (3) the balancing of upper or runner stones; and (4) the speed of the runner. As there was but one grinding, the making of middlings was avoided as much as possible. By this method of milling, some of the bran was pulverized so that it could not be separated from the flour. This gave the flour a darker color, and caused it to gather more moisture, which injured its keeping qualities, especially in moist or hot climates.
Here is an excerpt from The Book of Wheat written in 1908 by Peter Tracy Dondlinger. It helps to explain some of the history of the 19th century and the development of grain milling process. He goes on to explain other types of milling processes, high milling, and roller milling.
"Low" Milling.—Before 1850, the millstones in the United States were run at a comparatively low speed, and the grinding was slow. By this date the milling industry had assumed such commercial importance that it was necessary to increase the speed of the stones in order to get the work done. From 1850 to 1875, hard, low grinding was the rule, and the prime object was to make the largest possible percentage of flour at the first grinding. The change in process, due to greater speed, increased the output and improved its quality, "the outcome being a white, soft flour that met with favor in all he leading markets of the world where American winter wheat flours were handled." By this process, however, it was impossible to get the • flour entirely free from contamination, and some of the bran always remained. There were two parts to this old process, reducing the wheat to flour by passing it through a run of stones, and bolting the resulting material in order to separate the flour from the bran and other undesirable parts of the kernei. The percentage of flour obtained by this single grinding depended on four things: (1) The dress of the millstone; (2) the face of grinding surface; (3) the balancing of upper or runner stones; and (4) the speed of the runner. As there was but one grinding, the making of middlings was avoided as much as possible. By this method of milling, some of the bran was pulverized so that it could not be separated from the flour. This gave the flour a darker color, and caused it to gather more moisture, which injured its keeping qualities, especially in moist or hot climates.
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
Paper Mache
I've made more items out of paper mache over the years that I've lost count. However, these receipts and history of is a bit different than what we employ today. Perhaps your historical characters might have a reason to use paper mache or perhaps a mishap with it. Hmmm, the possibilities are endless. Enjoy! Oh warning the second part is quite long.
To make papier mache.
This is a substance made of cuttings of white or brown paper, boiled in water, and beaten in a mortar till they are reduced into a kind of paste, and then boiled with a solution of gum arable, or of size, to give tenacity to the paste, which is afterwards formed into different toys, &c. by pressing it into oiled moulds. When dry, it is done over with a mixture of size and lamp-black, and afterwards varnished. The black varnish for these toys, according to Or Lewis, is prepared as follows: Some colophony, er turpentine, boiled down till it becomes black and friable, is melted in a glazed earthen vessel, and thrice as much amber in fine powder sprinkled in by degrees, with the addition of a little spirit or oil of turpentine now and then: when the amber is melted, sprinkle in the same quantity of sarcocolla, continuing to stir them, and to add more spirit of turpentine, till the whole becomes duid; then strain out the clear through « coarse hair bag, pr:.*ssin£ it gently between hot boards. This varnish, mixed with ivory-black ia fine powder, is applied, in a hot room, on the dried paper paste; which is then set in a gently heated oven, next day in a hotter oven, and the third day in a very hot one, and let stand each time till the oven grows cold. The paste thus varnished is hard, durable, glossy, and bears liquors hot or cold.
Source: Mackenzie 5000 Receipts ©1846
Papier Mache And Carton Pieere.
The very pretty and useful material which bears the name of Papier Mache does not always deserve that name. The brilliant display which Messrs. Jennens and Bettridge, and other manufacturers, made at the Great Exhibition ought to have been designated by some more significant and correct name; it is pasted paper and moulded paper, but not mashed or pulp paper, as the French name mache indicates. There are two distinct branches of industry here involved, which we must separate in order to speak of the notabilities of each.
And first for the real, the true papier mache, that which was introduced about twenty-five years ago, and from which Mr. Bielefeld produces such a wondrous variety of decorative ornaments. This is almost entirely paper; there may be a small percentage of other material to impart certain minor qualities, but it is essentially paper. And if we enquire what kind of paper is thus used, we find that it is any and every kind. All is "fish that comes to this net." Nothing is refused, nothing laid aside, whether linen or cotton or hemp be the fibre from which the paper was originally made: all is available, whether it be black or white, bleached or unbleached, plain or figured; whether it be fine as ' extra satin wove,' or coarse as tough wrapping paper; whether in large sheets or small fragments; whether new and unused, or old and worn;— all will be welcome to the mache vat. Of course, in a practical point of view, where all kinds are useful, the manufacturers look about them for cheap miscellaneous lots, instead of appealing to the bran new stock of a wholesale stationer. Bankers have sometimes tons' weight of old account books by them, which have ceased to be of use, but which they are unwilling to place in the hands of the trunk-maker or the butterman, on account of the private transactions to which the writing on the pages of such books relate; and as it is a task of no little difficulty and danger to burn these books, the bankers are glad to find a receptacle for them in the vat of the papier-mache manufacturer, under a pledge that they shall really and promptly be so used, without exposure to public gaze. Thus the banker may perchance see the relievo decorations of his own drawing-room made from his own old account books; a ledger may find a new home as part of a cornice, or a cash-book as a frame for a looking-glass, or a day-book as a ceiling ornament. Nay, these transformations may extend wider; for in years gone by, the banker's old shirt may have been transferred to the rag-bag, and thence to the paper-mill, and thence to the account-book maker, and thence to the bank, and thence to the papier-mache factory, and thence to the drawing-room of the banker's residence—where his admiring gaze may rest upon a graceful ornament, some fibres of which once clothed his own back.
The cuttings of paper, produced by the principal applications of that material, form a very large portion of the supply whence papier mache is made. Bookbinders, pasteboard-makers, envelope-makers, accountbook and pocketbook-makers, printsellers, paper-hangers, all accumulate heaps of shreds and cuttings; and the papier-mache vat may receive them all, unless better prices can be obtained elsewhere. Whatever may be the source whence the supply is obtained, it is certain that paper has now reached that commercial point which gold and silver reached long ago—that is, none need be wasted, for a market can be found for all the odds and ends.
The kind of papier mache which is now under notice is a paste-like mass formed of paper-pulp, and pressed in moulds to any desired form. Mr. Bielefeld, the leading manufacturer in this branch, has an establishment in the country where water power can be commanded, and where machines, moved by this power, bring the paper to the required state. The paper, be it of what kind it may, or of as many different kinds as it may, is moistened, and chopped, and minced, and routed about until it becomes a perfectly homogeneous pasty mass, or rather a mass having a consistency like that of dough or of putty. A trifling portion of other substances is, as we have said, introduced, but not sufficient to change the general character of the mass as a paper substance. Then comes the moulding or pressing. The material is too thick to be poured into a mould like plaster of Paris, or like molten metal; it is pressed into flattish nioulds, like clay, or composition, or gutta percha. A piece is cut off, about enough for the article to be made, it is pressed well into the mould, a counter-mould is placed upon it, and the force of a powerful press is brought to bear upon it, so as to drive the material into every minute crevice of the mould.
And here we come to the artistic department of such a manufacture as this. To command anything like a leading position in decorative art, there must be an untiring attention to new designs, new artistic ideas, new combinations of form, and colour, and material. Hence, in such an establishment as the ope now under notice, the moulds (made in metal from plaster models) are constantly increasing hi number and value; they accumulate not merely by hundredweights, but by tons; the designer, the carver of wood moulds, the engraver or sinker of metal moulds, are all adding to the store. It may be that a new design does not ' take ' sufficiently to pay the expense even of making the mould, but this may be counterbalanced by another which has a long run, and by degrees an extensive manufacturer becomes able to strike a balance, to establish an average which shall determine the probable returns to be expected from each new mould. Among our large establishments, where mechanical skill and fine art meet hand in hand, those which produce the most continuous run of new designs are those which generally rise to the uppermost pl&ce; and it is here that the artistic education of the artizan becomes a matter not merely of individual but of national importance.
The articles made of this material are chiefly architectural ornaments for interior use, such as ceiling ornaments, cornices, and so forth; but they are becoming every year more and more widely spread in their application. The theatres afford ample scope for the display of papier-mache ornaments; because the material is so tough that it will scarcely break, and so light that it requires much less fastening than the whiting and glue composition ornaments of former times. The counter-mould imparts to the ornament a hollowness at the back which economizes material and lessens the weight. The surface which the paper or papier presents is of a nondescript colour, arising from the mixture of various colours in the pulp, but it is fitted to receive any decorations in gold, oil-paint, size-colours, or varnish. Thus, an ornate frame for a looking-glass, made of papier mache, may be gilt with a degree of perfection nearly equal to that of a carved frame. But it is also capable of assuming a sculpturesque form. There were in the Great Exhibition, as many of our readers may remember, two statuettes after Michael Angelo, a copy of the noble horse's head from the Elgin marbles, and a bust of some celebrated man, all formed of papier mache, and deriving therefrom a toughness -which defies althost any power of breakage. The Corinthian capital in this material, set up on a pillar in the western nave, was an example of the more ordinary application for ornamental purposes.
There is another modern decorative material, still more recent than papier mache, but like it honoured with a French name: we mean carton pierre, which may be interpreted stone cardboard or pasteboard. This more nearly resembles plaster than papier mache ; it has a little paper in it, a great deal more plaster, and one or two other substances; the mixture thus produced is fashioned in moulds, and is applied to various ornamental purposes, but it is much heavier than papier mache. The beautiful internal decorations at the Lyceum Theatre are, we believe, made of carton pierre. Carton pierre is manufactured in England chiefly by Messrs. Jackson, but it appears to have been a French invention, and to be made in France and Germany more largely than in England. The carton pierre of the one country, and the stein pappe of the other, seem to be pretty nearly the same material: viz., a kind of liquid plaster combined with other materials, poured instead of pressed into moulds, and backed with a stratum of paper to give strength. Some of our French neighbours displayed beautiful specimens of friezes, vases, pilasters, and bas-relievos, in carton pierre, at the Great Exhibition; while the Prussian exhibitor, Gropius, displayed some dozens of neat little statuettes in the same material. The noble chandelier for sixty lights, exhibited by Messrs. Jackson, was perhaps the best specimen 6f carton-pierre work.
But to return to papier mache. That the pulpy or mache paper is susceptible of being made into beautifully even flat surfaces, is exemplified in the thick millboard used by bookbinders. Time was when all such millboard was essentially pasteboard, produced by pasting together a large number of sheets of paper to the required thickness; but now the pulp is used. In the first place there is a flat table or slab, with a raised edge all round to form a sort of shallow mould. Into this mould the pulp is laded, to a depth depending on the thickness of the millboard to be made, and this pulp, by drying between felted cloths, by drying in the open air, by gentle pressure in a press, and then by powerful pressure between rollers, assumes at length that hard, tough, strong, smooth, uniform consistency which distinguishes millboard, and which makes that material so invaluable to the bookbinder. Mr. Bielefeld is about to introduce an important modification of this process in the production of panels for artists. He has produced panels eight feet by six, made entirely of papier mache half an inch thick, mounted on a skeleton wood support or frame; and the surface of these panels appears as if it would be admirably fitted for paintings, more durable than canvas, and less likely to split than wood panel; indeed, splitting is out of the question in respect to such a material. The bulkheads and the cabin partitions of some of the fine steamers of Our day have been made of this material; it is tough and strong, and admits of any degree of ornamentation. The material is said to be a bad conductor both of sound and of heat, and has thus a twofold recommendation for room partitions. It seems to have been some such material as this which Mr. Haddan contributed to the Great Exhibition, in the form of panels for railway carriages, or rather for the whole broadside. It is alleged that such panels do not shrink, and do not require grooves for fixing: whether they will bear being 'run into' better than other railway panels, has probably not yet been tested.
Now we may turn our glance to that which, though not really papier
mache, is much more extensively known by that name than the material just described. The gorgeous contributions to the Hyde Park collection must be in the recollection of most persons. That paper, even with the adventitious aid of painting, and varnishing, and polishing, and gilding, and inlaying, should be wrought into such beautiful forms, might well excite the wonder of those to whom the manufacture was new. It was no small triumph of skill to produce, out of such a substance, the pearl inlaid pianoforte and music stool; the Victoria Eegia cot, designed by Bell, the sculptor, and decked with emblematic devices in gold and colours; the pearl-and-gold inlaid loo-table; the Lotus work-table, designed by Bell; the pearl-inlaid and gilded work-table, in a form suggested by Benvenuto Cellini's vase; and Bell's chess-board for his "Parian" chess-men—to say nothing of the chairs, tables, sofas, cabinets, secretaries, screens, vases, writing-desks, blotting-folios, workboxes, papetieres, inkstands, envelope-cases, card-boxes, flower-stands, teatrays, coffee-trays, wine-trays, standishes, crochet and netting-cases, and the numberless things which modern refinement has rendered familiar to us. The Furniture Courts in the Exhibition certainly glittered with these productions.
It would give a better idea of the manufacture (although somewhat lowering to its dignity) if these productions were called pasteboard, for pasteboard they certainly are, as the reader will presently see. It was towards the close of the last century that iron tea-trays began to be imitated or superseded by papier mache, and from these trays has gradually sprung up an important department of Birmingham industry, a department in which it is pretty generally admitted, we believe, that Birmingham excels all other places.
Although the real papier mache snaps up all kinds of paper indiscriminately, with most impartial fairness, the tea-tray paper (if we may so term it) is not so easily satisfied; it requires whole sound sheets to work upon, and these sheets must have a certain definite quality to fit them for their destined purpose.
Let us watch, in thought, the making of a papier-mache tea-tray. In the first place we see that the paper employed has a grayish colour, and looks like thick blotting-paper; and in the next we see that a mould or form is employed to give shape to the tray. Artists or designers are constantly at work producing new patterns; but we are here supposing that a tolerably simple tray is to be manufactured. A model of the tray is prepared, giving the exact form and shape; and from this model a mould is cast in iron, brass, or copper, the surface of the mould corresponding, of course, with the interior of the tray to be made. Women and girls, seated at tables, cut up the rough gray paper into pieces of the requisite size, and these pieces are handed to the pasters, who are also women—for it is worthy of remark that this veiy pretty art is one which is capable of being conducted in many of its branches by females. These pasters have beside them a plentiful supply of paste, made of flour and glue dissolved and boiled in water. The mould is greased to prevent the paper from adhering. The first sheet is pasted on both sides, and handed to another woman, who lays it on the mould, pressing and rubbing and adjusting it until it conforms to the shape. Another and another are similarly applied, and the mould, with its threefold garment, is put into a drying room, heated to a high temperature, where it is brought to a dried state. It is removed from the stove-room, filed to give it a tolerable smoothness of surface, and then clothed with three more layers of paper, in the same mode as before. Again is the stove-room employed, again the pasters ply their labour; a third time the stove-room, again the pasters; and so on, until thirty or forty thicknesses of paper have been applied, more or less, of course, ae cording to the substance intended to be produced. For some purposes as many as a hundred and twenty thicknesses are pasted together, involving forty stove dryings, and of course carrying the operations over a considerable number of days. A mass of pasteboard, six inches in thickness, which is occasionally produced for certain purposes, is perhaps one of the toughest and strongest materials we can imagine. If a cannon-ball, made of such pasteboard, were fired against a ship, would not the ball itself escape fracture?
The mould being covered with a sufficient layer, a knife is employed to dexterously loosen the paper at the edges; the greased state of the mould allows the paper to be removed from it. Then are all imperfections removed; the plane, the file, and the knife are applied to bring all 'ship-shape' and proper.
Next come the adornments. The pasteboard itself is not beautiful, so beauty is sought in other ways. Shell-lac varnish of very fine quality, coloured according to circumstances, is applied coat after coat, until a thickness is obtained sufficient for the purpose. The black polished surface of ordinary papier-mache trays is produced by black japan varnish, applied by women with a brush. But whether the varnish be black or coloured, it usually undergoes a rubbing and polishing to such a degree as to equal in brilliancy anything produced in the arts. It is said that the finest polishing instrument used to give the last finishing touch after all the ' rotten-stones' and ' emeries ' have done their best, is the soft palm of a woman's hand; and that those females employed in this art, who are gifted by nature with the much-coveted charm of a soft and delicate hand, find it commercially advantageous to preserve this softness and delicacy by a degree of gloved carefulness not usual in their rank in life. What will the poets say, when woman's hand is thus spoken of?
Then ensue the painting and the gilding, the bedizenment with gaudy show, or the adornment with graceful device, according as the goods are low or high priced, or the manufacturer a man of taste or no taste. A kind of stencilling is employed in cheap work, but in better specimens the real artist's pencil is brought into requisition'
The inlaid-work exhibited in the higher class of papier-mache goods is very curious. A sort of imitative tortoiseshell is thus produced. A thin transparent varnish is laid on the prepared tray, leaf silver is laid on the varnish, the two are dried, and varnish is laid thickly over the silver, and pumice-stone is skilfully applied to grind away so much of the varnish at particular spots as will give to the whole the mottled appearance of tortoiseshell. Every day's experience tells us that imitations themselves are imitated. Not only is varnished silver made to imitate tortoiseshell, but varnished vermilion is made to imitate varnished -silver. A method of decorating papier maehe with imitative gems has been recently introduced, in which some kind of foil or varnish is applied to the back of glass, and the glass employed as an inlaying. But perhaps the most striking ornamentation of this kind is pearl-inlaying, of which Messrs. Jennens and Bettridge's pianoforte was such a brilliant specimen. Here real mother-of-pearl is employed. A design is painted on the thin pieces of pearl with shellac varnish, a strong acid is applied, all the shell is eaten away except those parts protected by the varnish, and thus the pearl is brought into an ornamental form. The pearl is placed upon the wet japan of the papier mache, to which it adheres; and it is then coated with such a thick layer of varnish as to equal the thickness of the film 6f mother-of pearl. It is varnished, dried, and rubbed with, pumice over and over again, until a level surface is produced. It may be easily conceived how excellent the varnish and the mode of application must be to render such a thickness of applied varnish durable. The firm lately mentioned have made a complete suite of papier-mache drawing-room furniture for the Queen of Spain, decorated in this remarkable way.
But it is doubtful whether this excessive glitter of polish and pearl will have a permanent reputation. Something more sober will probably live longer. At any fate, when we find Mr. Owen Jones supplying Alhaiiibraie designs, and other artists pictorial designs, for tea-trays, we find a nearer approach to fine art. The papier-mache contributions to the Great Exhibition from the Messrs. Spiers of Oxford were remarkable, inasmuch as the two oithree hundred specimens contained views of about a hundred and fifty public buildings and interesting places in and near that city. There is in many of these specimens a mediaeval taste in ornament fitted to the mediaeval state of feeling in Oxford.
Source: Paper: Its Applications and Its Novelties ©1853
To make papier mache.
This is a substance made of cuttings of white or brown paper, boiled in water, and beaten in a mortar till they are reduced into a kind of paste, and then boiled with a solution of gum arable, or of size, to give tenacity to the paste, which is afterwards formed into different toys, &c. by pressing it into oiled moulds. When dry, it is done over with a mixture of size and lamp-black, and afterwards varnished. The black varnish for these toys, according to Or Lewis, is prepared as follows: Some colophony, er turpentine, boiled down till it becomes black and friable, is melted in a glazed earthen vessel, and thrice as much amber in fine powder sprinkled in by degrees, with the addition of a little spirit or oil of turpentine now and then: when the amber is melted, sprinkle in the same quantity of sarcocolla, continuing to stir them, and to add more spirit of turpentine, till the whole becomes duid; then strain out the clear through « coarse hair bag, pr:.*ssin£ it gently between hot boards. This varnish, mixed with ivory-black ia fine powder, is applied, in a hot room, on the dried paper paste; which is then set in a gently heated oven, next day in a hotter oven, and the third day in a very hot one, and let stand each time till the oven grows cold. The paste thus varnished is hard, durable, glossy, and bears liquors hot or cold.
Source: Mackenzie 5000 Receipts ©1846
Papier Mache And Carton Pieere.
The very pretty and useful material which bears the name of Papier Mache does not always deserve that name. The brilliant display which Messrs. Jennens and Bettridge, and other manufacturers, made at the Great Exhibition ought to have been designated by some more significant and correct name; it is pasted paper and moulded paper, but not mashed or pulp paper, as the French name mache indicates. There are two distinct branches of industry here involved, which we must separate in order to speak of the notabilities of each.
And first for the real, the true papier mache, that which was introduced about twenty-five years ago, and from which Mr. Bielefeld produces such a wondrous variety of decorative ornaments. This is almost entirely paper; there may be a small percentage of other material to impart certain minor qualities, but it is essentially paper. And if we enquire what kind of paper is thus used, we find that it is any and every kind. All is "fish that comes to this net." Nothing is refused, nothing laid aside, whether linen or cotton or hemp be the fibre from which the paper was originally made: all is available, whether it be black or white, bleached or unbleached, plain or figured; whether it be fine as ' extra satin wove,' or coarse as tough wrapping paper; whether in large sheets or small fragments; whether new and unused, or old and worn;— all will be welcome to the mache vat. Of course, in a practical point of view, where all kinds are useful, the manufacturers look about them for cheap miscellaneous lots, instead of appealing to the bran new stock of a wholesale stationer. Bankers have sometimes tons' weight of old account books by them, which have ceased to be of use, but which they are unwilling to place in the hands of the trunk-maker or the butterman, on account of the private transactions to which the writing on the pages of such books relate; and as it is a task of no little difficulty and danger to burn these books, the bankers are glad to find a receptacle for them in the vat of the papier-mache manufacturer, under a pledge that they shall really and promptly be so used, without exposure to public gaze. Thus the banker may perchance see the relievo decorations of his own drawing-room made from his own old account books; a ledger may find a new home as part of a cornice, or a cash-book as a frame for a looking-glass, or a day-book as a ceiling ornament. Nay, these transformations may extend wider; for in years gone by, the banker's old shirt may have been transferred to the rag-bag, and thence to the paper-mill, and thence to the account-book maker, and thence to the bank, and thence to the papier-mache factory, and thence to the drawing-room of the banker's residence—where his admiring gaze may rest upon a graceful ornament, some fibres of which once clothed his own back.
The cuttings of paper, produced by the principal applications of that material, form a very large portion of the supply whence papier mache is made. Bookbinders, pasteboard-makers, envelope-makers, accountbook and pocketbook-makers, printsellers, paper-hangers, all accumulate heaps of shreds and cuttings; and the papier-mache vat may receive them all, unless better prices can be obtained elsewhere. Whatever may be the source whence the supply is obtained, it is certain that paper has now reached that commercial point which gold and silver reached long ago—that is, none need be wasted, for a market can be found for all the odds and ends.
The kind of papier mache which is now under notice is a paste-like mass formed of paper-pulp, and pressed in moulds to any desired form. Mr. Bielefeld, the leading manufacturer in this branch, has an establishment in the country where water power can be commanded, and where machines, moved by this power, bring the paper to the required state. The paper, be it of what kind it may, or of as many different kinds as it may, is moistened, and chopped, and minced, and routed about until it becomes a perfectly homogeneous pasty mass, or rather a mass having a consistency like that of dough or of putty. A trifling portion of other substances is, as we have said, introduced, but not sufficient to change the general character of the mass as a paper substance. Then comes the moulding or pressing. The material is too thick to be poured into a mould like plaster of Paris, or like molten metal; it is pressed into flattish nioulds, like clay, or composition, or gutta percha. A piece is cut off, about enough for the article to be made, it is pressed well into the mould, a counter-mould is placed upon it, and the force of a powerful press is brought to bear upon it, so as to drive the material into every minute crevice of the mould.
And here we come to the artistic department of such a manufacture as this. To command anything like a leading position in decorative art, there must be an untiring attention to new designs, new artistic ideas, new combinations of form, and colour, and material. Hence, in such an establishment as the ope now under notice, the moulds (made in metal from plaster models) are constantly increasing hi number and value; they accumulate not merely by hundredweights, but by tons; the designer, the carver of wood moulds, the engraver or sinker of metal moulds, are all adding to the store. It may be that a new design does not ' take ' sufficiently to pay the expense even of making the mould, but this may be counterbalanced by another which has a long run, and by degrees an extensive manufacturer becomes able to strike a balance, to establish an average which shall determine the probable returns to be expected from each new mould. Among our large establishments, where mechanical skill and fine art meet hand in hand, those which produce the most continuous run of new designs are those which generally rise to the uppermost pl&ce; and it is here that the artistic education of the artizan becomes a matter not merely of individual but of national importance.
The articles made of this material are chiefly architectural ornaments for interior use, such as ceiling ornaments, cornices, and so forth; but they are becoming every year more and more widely spread in their application. The theatres afford ample scope for the display of papier-mache ornaments; because the material is so tough that it will scarcely break, and so light that it requires much less fastening than the whiting and glue composition ornaments of former times. The counter-mould imparts to the ornament a hollowness at the back which economizes material and lessens the weight. The surface which the paper or papier presents is of a nondescript colour, arising from the mixture of various colours in the pulp, but it is fitted to receive any decorations in gold, oil-paint, size-colours, or varnish. Thus, an ornate frame for a looking-glass, made of papier mache, may be gilt with a degree of perfection nearly equal to that of a carved frame. But it is also capable of assuming a sculpturesque form. There were in the Great Exhibition, as many of our readers may remember, two statuettes after Michael Angelo, a copy of the noble horse's head from the Elgin marbles, and a bust of some celebrated man, all formed of papier mache, and deriving therefrom a toughness -which defies althost any power of breakage. The Corinthian capital in this material, set up on a pillar in the western nave, was an example of the more ordinary application for ornamental purposes.
There is another modern decorative material, still more recent than papier mache, but like it honoured with a French name: we mean carton pierre, which may be interpreted stone cardboard or pasteboard. This more nearly resembles plaster than papier mache ; it has a little paper in it, a great deal more plaster, and one or two other substances; the mixture thus produced is fashioned in moulds, and is applied to various ornamental purposes, but it is much heavier than papier mache. The beautiful internal decorations at the Lyceum Theatre are, we believe, made of carton pierre. Carton pierre is manufactured in England chiefly by Messrs. Jackson, but it appears to have been a French invention, and to be made in France and Germany more largely than in England. The carton pierre of the one country, and the stein pappe of the other, seem to be pretty nearly the same material: viz., a kind of liquid plaster combined with other materials, poured instead of pressed into moulds, and backed with a stratum of paper to give strength. Some of our French neighbours displayed beautiful specimens of friezes, vases, pilasters, and bas-relievos, in carton pierre, at the Great Exhibition; while the Prussian exhibitor, Gropius, displayed some dozens of neat little statuettes in the same material. The noble chandelier for sixty lights, exhibited by Messrs. Jackson, was perhaps the best specimen 6f carton-pierre work.
But to return to papier mache. That the pulpy or mache paper is susceptible of being made into beautifully even flat surfaces, is exemplified in the thick millboard used by bookbinders. Time was when all such millboard was essentially pasteboard, produced by pasting together a large number of sheets of paper to the required thickness; but now the pulp is used. In the first place there is a flat table or slab, with a raised edge all round to form a sort of shallow mould. Into this mould the pulp is laded, to a depth depending on the thickness of the millboard to be made, and this pulp, by drying between felted cloths, by drying in the open air, by gentle pressure in a press, and then by powerful pressure between rollers, assumes at length that hard, tough, strong, smooth, uniform consistency which distinguishes millboard, and which makes that material so invaluable to the bookbinder. Mr. Bielefeld is about to introduce an important modification of this process in the production of panels for artists. He has produced panels eight feet by six, made entirely of papier mache half an inch thick, mounted on a skeleton wood support or frame; and the surface of these panels appears as if it would be admirably fitted for paintings, more durable than canvas, and less likely to split than wood panel; indeed, splitting is out of the question in respect to such a material. The bulkheads and the cabin partitions of some of the fine steamers of Our day have been made of this material; it is tough and strong, and admits of any degree of ornamentation. The material is said to be a bad conductor both of sound and of heat, and has thus a twofold recommendation for room partitions. It seems to have been some such material as this which Mr. Haddan contributed to the Great Exhibition, in the form of panels for railway carriages, or rather for the whole broadside. It is alleged that such panels do not shrink, and do not require grooves for fixing: whether they will bear being 'run into' better than other railway panels, has probably not yet been tested.
Now we may turn our glance to that which, though not really papier
mache, is much more extensively known by that name than the material just described. The gorgeous contributions to the Hyde Park collection must be in the recollection of most persons. That paper, even with the adventitious aid of painting, and varnishing, and polishing, and gilding, and inlaying, should be wrought into such beautiful forms, might well excite the wonder of those to whom the manufacture was new. It was no small triumph of skill to produce, out of such a substance, the pearl inlaid pianoforte and music stool; the Victoria Eegia cot, designed by Bell, the sculptor, and decked with emblematic devices in gold and colours; the pearl-and-gold inlaid loo-table; the Lotus work-table, designed by Bell; the pearl-inlaid and gilded work-table, in a form suggested by Benvenuto Cellini's vase; and Bell's chess-board for his "Parian" chess-men—to say nothing of the chairs, tables, sofas, cabinets, secretaries, screens, vases, writing-desks, blotting-folios, workboxes, papetieres, inkstands, envelope-cases, card-boxes, flower-stands, teatrays, coffee-trays, wine-trays, standishes, crochet and netting-cases, and the numberless things which modern refinement has rendered familiar to us. The Furniture Courts in the Exhibition certainly glittered with these productions.
It would give a better idea of the manufacture (although somewhat lowering to its dignity) if these productions were called pasteboard, for pasteboard they certainly are, as the reader will presently see. It was towards the close of the last century that iron tea-trays began to be imitated or superseded by papier mache, and from these trays has gradually sprung up an important department of Birmingham industry, a department in which it is pretty generally admitted, we believe, that Birmingham excels all other places.
Although the real papier mache snaps up all kinds of paper indiscriminately, with most impartial fairness, the tea-tray paper (if we may so term it) is not so easily satisfied; it requires whole sound sheets to work upon, and these sheets must have a certain definite quality to fit them for their destined purpose.
Let us watch, in thought, the making of a papier-mache tea-tray. In the first place we see that the paper employed has a grayish colour, and looks like thick blotting-paper; and in the next we see that a mould or form is employed to give shape to the tray. Artists or designers are constantly at work producing new patterns; but we are here supposing that a tolerably simple tray is to be manufactured. A model of the tray is prepared, giving the exact form and shape; and from this model a mould is cast in iron, brass, or copper, the surface of the mould corresponding, of course, with the interior of the tray to be made. Women and girls, seated at tables, cut up the rough gray paper into pieces of the requisite size, and these pieces are handed to the pasters, who are also women—for it is worthy of remark that this veiy pretty art is one which is capable of being conducted in many of its branches by females. These pasters have beside them a plentiful supply of paste, made of flour and glue dissolved and boiled in water. The mould is greased to prevent the paper from adhering. The first sheet is pasted on both sides, and handed to another woman, who lays it on the mould, pressing and rubbing and adjusting it until it conforms to the shape. Another and another are similarly applied, and the mould, with its threefold garment, is put into a drying room, heated to a high temperature, where it is brought to a dried state. It is removed from the stove-room, filed to give it a tolerable smoothness of surface, and then clothed with three more layers of paper, in the same mode as before. Again is the stove-room employed, again the pasters ply their labour; a third time the stove-room, again the pasters; and so on, until thirty or forty thicknesses of paper have been applied, more or less, of course, ae cording to the substance intended to be produced. For some purposes as many as a hundred and twenty thicknesses are pasted together, involving forty stove dryings, and of course carrying the operations over a considerable number of days. A mass of pasteboard, six inches in thickness, which is occasionally produced for certain purposes, is perhaps one of the toughest and strongest materials we can imagine. If a cannon-ball, made of such pasteboard, were fired against a ship, would not the ball itself escape fracture?
The mould being covered with a sufficient layer, a knife is employed to dexterously loosen the paper at the edges; the greased state of the mould allows the paper to be removed from it. Then are all imperfections removed; the plane, the file, and the knife are applied to bring all 'ship-shape' and proper.
Next come the adornments. The pasteboard itself is not beautiful, so beauty is sought in other ways. Shell-lac varnish of very fine quality, coloured according to circumstances, is applied coat after coat, until a thickness is obtained sufficient for the purpose. The black polished surface of ordinary papier-mache trays is produced by black japan varnish, applied by women with a brush. But whether the varnish be black or coloured, it usually undergoes a rubbing and polishing to such a degree as to equal in brilliancy anything produced in the arts. It is said that the finest polishing instrument used to give the last finishing touch after all the ' rotten-stones' and ' emeries ' have done their best, is the soft palm of a woman's hand; and that those females employed in this art, who are gifted by nature with the much-coveted charm of a soft and delicate hand, find it commercially advantageous to preserve this softness and delicacy by a degree of gloved carefulness not usual in their rank in life. What will the poets say, when woman's hand is thus spoken of?
Then ensue the painting and the gilding, the bedizenment with gaudy show, or the adornment with graceful device, according as the goods are low or high priced, or the manufacturer a man of taste or no taste. A kind of stencilling is employed in cheap work, but in better specimens the real artist's pencil is brought into requisition'
The inlaid-work exhibited in the higher class of papier-mache goods is very curious. A sort of imitative tortoiseshell is thus produced. A thin transparent varnish is laid on the prepared tray, leaf silver is laid on the varnish, the two are dried, and varnish is laid thickly over the silver, and pumice-stone is skilfully applied to grind away so much of the varnish at particular spots as will give to the whole the mottled appearance of tortoiseshell. Every day's experience tells us that imitations themselves are imitated. Not only is varnished silver made to imitate tortoiseshell, but varnished vermilion is made to imitate varnished -silver. A method of decorating papier maehe with imitative gems has been recently introduced, in which some kind of foil or varnish is applied to the back of glass, and the glass employed as an inlaying. But perhaps the most striking ornamentation of this kind is pearl-inlaying, of which Messrs. Jennens and Bettridge's pianoforte was such a brilliant specimen. Here real mother-of-pearl is employed. A design is painted on the thin pieces of pearl with shellac varnish, a strong acid is applied, all the shell is eaten away except those parts protected by the varnish, and thus the pearl is brought into an ornamental form. The pearl is placed upon the wet japan of the papier mache, to which it adheres; and it is then coated with such a thick layer of varnish as to equal the thickness of the film 6f mother-of pearl. It is varnished, dried, and rubbed with, pumice over and over again, until a level surface is produced. It may be easily conceived how excellent the varnish and the mode of application must be to render such a thickness of applied varnish durable. The firm lately mentioned have made a complete suite of papier-mache drawing-room furniture for the Queen of Spain, decorated in this remarkable way.
But it is doubtful whether this excessive glitter of polish and pearl will have a permanent reputation. Something more sober will probably live longer. At any fate, when we find Mr. Owen Jones supplying Alhaiiibraie designs, and other artists pictorial designs, for tea-trays, we find a nearer approach to fine art. The papier-mache contributions to the Great Exhibition from the Messrs. Spiers of Oxford were remarkable, inasmuch as the two oithree hundred specimens contained views of about a hundred and fifty public buildings and interesting places in and near that city. There is in many of these specimens a mediaeval taste in ornament fitted to the mediaeval state of feeling in Oxford.
Source: Paper: Its Applications and Its Novelties ©1853
Friday, September 5, 2014
Cheese Making
I love going to the store and buying cheese. Making cheese today is similar to making cheese during the 19th century however the tools are a bit different. Below is beginning of an article from The Book of the Farm ©1890 on cheese making.
CHEESE MAKING
The systems of cheese-making pursued in this country are numerous. It is a more intricate process than butter-making, affording scope for the exercise of greater skill in manipulation, and of more ingenuity in producing differences in the manufactured article.
In making the hard cheeses of this country the entire milk as it comes from the cow is dealt with. In making Stilton cheeses a little extra cream is usually, and ought always to be added. The cheese-maker has thus a bulky article to handle, and one which requires to be treated with the utmost skill and care commonly called a vat or tub. It may be oblong, as shown in Fig. 449
about 20 inches deep, and 30 to 32 inches wide, and mounted on 3 or 4 wheels so as to be easily moved about, and from one apartment to another. The Vat is if uniformly good results are to be obtained.
Apartments for Cheese-making— In well-equipped dairies there are at least three separate compartments for cheese-making—(r) the milk-room, the curd and pressing room, and (3) t e drying-room. In Stilton dairies there are generally three but sometimes four compartments. A convenient arrangement is to have the store over the other compartments, or perhaps over the curd or cheese-making room only. Some prefer to have the store in a cool dimly lighted ground-floor room.
An important point is to have the compartments as much as possible protected from variations in temperature,— so arranged that the temperature may be artificially controlled independently of the season of the year.
And, as in butter-making, the apartments and vessels must be kept perfectly clean, sweet, and fresh. Bad smells and impurities in the milk are fatal to successful cheese-making.
Utensils.--The utensils required in cheese-making are numerous, but they need not be costly. They usually consist of a milk vat or tub, strainers, curdknives, curd-mill, curd-shovel, curd-rake, cheese moulds or hoops, cheese racks or shelves, cheese-presses, pails, and pans, etc.
Vat—The vessel in which the milk is collected to be coagulated by rennet is made of many sizes to suit different dairies. This is the most modern vat. It has a double casing, so as to admit between the two cases cold water for cooling and hot water for heating the milk and curd. The inner case should be made of the best tinned steel; and the at is provided, as shown, with brass taps, as well as with draining cylinder, siphons, covers, and draining racks, on which the last the curd is placed to strain.
Circular Cheese Tub--Formerly the milk-vat was in the form of a circular tub. In very small dairies these tubs may still be convenient for the handling of small quantities of curd. Indeed there are not a few noted cheese-makers who still prefer the circular tub. With either the round or oblong vat first-class cheese may be made; but the modern oblong vat, with the double casing for heating or cooling the contents, in unquestionably the most convenient.
Heating Curd--In the modern vat with double casing the curd may be heated as desired by circulating steam or hot water between the two cases, which are usually about 2 inches apart. The perfect control which this gives over the temperature of the contents of the vat is regarded by most modern cheese-makers as of the very first importance. There are some who contend that this system is liable to injure the cheese by over-cooking the portions of curd which come into contact with the hot sides of the vat. This risk may be avoided by raising the heat slowly. In the round tubs the curd is heated by withdrawing a quantity of the whey, scalding it to a high temperature, and pouring it over the curd. This has to be frequently repeated, and is a troublesome process.
Curd-mill.—The frame of the curd mill, is usually made of wood, consisting of two bars supported on four legs. On the top is fastened the hopper with movable pins and hinges, and at the bottom of this runs an iron axle armed with pins or teeth fixed on it spirally, and below this again a metal grating. A handle drives the toothed axle, and the teeth pass through the bars of the grating, so that slices of “green” curd when put into the hopper are cut and broken through the grating, and fall into a receiver below. The metal working parts are tinned over 3 and the wood must be of some close-grained variety, and well seasoned, while the framework is sometimes made of iron.
Presses-- Of the cheese press the varieties are numbers. Those most in use my be classed under two kinds, with and without levers. Of the lever-press the varieties are most numerous, passing from the single lever, through the various combinations of simple levers, to the more elaborate one of the rack and levers.
Single cheese Press
The article goes on and if you would like to read the rest of it, here is a link in Google books Cheese Making the article begins on pg 500.
CHEESE MAKING
The systems of cheese-making pursued in this country are numerous. It is a more intricate process than butter-making, affording scope for the exercise of greater skill in manipulation, and of more ingenuity in producing differences in the manufactured article.
In making the hard cheeses of this country the entire milk as it comes from the cow is dealt with. In making Stilton cheeses a little extra cream is usually, and ought always to be added. The cheese-maker has thus a bulky article to handle, and one which requires to be treated with the utmost skill and care commonly called a vat or tub. It may be oblong, as shown in Fig. 449
Apartments for Cheese-making— In well-equipped dairies there are at least three separate compartments for cheese-making—(r) the milk-room, the curd and pressing room, and (3) t e drying-room. In Stilton dairies there are generally three but sometimes four compartments. A convenient arrangement is to have the store over the other compartments, or perhaps over the curd or cheese-making room only. Some prefer to have the store in a cool dimly lighted ground-floor room.
An important point is to have the compartments as much as possible protected from variations in temperature,— so arranged that the temperature may be artificially controlled independently of the season of the year.
And, as in butter-making, the apartments and vessels must be kept perfectly clean, sweet, and fresh. Bad smells and impurities in the milk are fatal to successful cheese-making.
Utensils.--The utensils required in cheese-making are numerous, but they need not be costly. They usually consist of a milk vat or tub, strainers, curdknives, curd-mill, curd-shovel, curd-rake, cheese moulds or hoops, cheese racks or shelves, cheese-presses, pails, and pans, etc.
Vat—The vessel in which the milk is collected to be coagulated by rennet is made of many sizes to suit different dairies. This is the most modern vat. It has a double casing, so as to admit between the two cases cold water for cooling and hot water for heating the milk and curd. The inner case should be made of the best tinned steel; and the at is provided, as shown, with brass taps, as well as with draining cylinder, siphons, covers, and draining racks, on which the last the curd is placed to strain.
Circular Cheese Tub--Formerly the milk-vat was in the form of a circular tub. In very small dairies these tubs may still be convenient for the handling of small quantities of curd. Indeed there are not a few noted cheese-makers who still prefer the circular tub. With either the round or oblong vat first-class cheese may be made; but the modern oblong vat, with the double casing for heating or cooling the contents, in unquestionably the most convenient.
Heating Curd--In the modern vat with double casing the curd may be heated as desired by circulating steam or hot water between the two cases, which are usually about 2 inches apart. The perfect control which this gives over the temperature of the contents of the vat is regarded by most modern cheese-makers as of the very first importance. There are some who contend that this system is liable to injure the cheese by over-cooking the portions of curd which come into contact with the hot sides of the vat. This risk may be avoided by raising the heat slowly. In the round tubs the curd is heated by withdrawing a quantity of the whey, scalding it to a high temperature, and pouring it over the curd. This has to be frequently repeated, and is a troublesome process.
Curd-mill.—The frame of the curd mill, is usually made of wood, consisting of two bars supported on four legs. On the top is fastened the hopper with movable pins and hinges, and at the bottom of this runs an iron axle armed with pins or teeth fixed on it spirally, and below this again a metal grating. A handle drives the toothed axle, and the teeth pass through the bars of the grating, so that slices of “green” curd when put into the hopper are cut and broken through the grating, and fall into a receiver below. The metal working parts are tinned over 3 and the wood must be of some close-grained variety, and well seasoned, while the framework is sometimes made of iron.
Presses-- Of the cheese press the varieties are numbers. Those most in use my be classed under two kinds, with and without levers. Of the lever-press the varieties are most numerous, passing from the single lever, through the various combinations of simple levers, to the more elaborate one of the rack and levers.
Single cheese Press
Monday, July 21, 2014
The turpentine and tar business.
One of my most visited posts is on the making of turpentine. So I thought I'd add a few more tidbits about this industry.
The turpentine and tar business.
The making of turpentine and tar is the almost sole business of the thinly settled population of the pine lands. They are generally poor and indolent; yet this business allords good profits even at the present low prices, and enormous profits were made when naval stores were tuore than double their present prices. Turpentine now sells at 81.80 the barrel at Wilmington, and it has sold for upwards of $4. Mr. Lazarus told me that he had paid to a poor white man, who worked singly and unassisted in making turpentine, 81000 lbr the fruits of his labor of one year. It is understood that a good hand can attend to 9000 trees, and can secure 200 barrels of turpentine in a year.
In commencing the operation on trees untouched, a receptacle (or “box”) is cut by the axe on one side of the tree, and about six inches above the ground, which is large enough to hold a quart of the fluid turpentine which exudes from the cut sap-wood, and which flows into this hollow from the upper part and sides. The flowing of the sap begins of course in the spring. At the end of a few days, (according to the time and state of the season,) the laborer visits all his trees, collects turpentine and puts it in barrels. He then cuts from each side of the tree a shallow groove, inclining downward to the box, through the bark and a little into the wood. Into these new cuts the turpentine exudes, and flows down them into the box. The tool by which this operation is performed is called a “shave.” It is a circular piece of iron like the eye of a weeding hoe, with the lower edge sharp, and which is attached to a shaft or handle, so as to cut its groove like a gouge, but by being pulled to, instead ol'being pushed from. the operator.
Every time the box is emptied of its turpentine, the “shaving” is extended upward, and thus gradually making the tree bare of bark and ofthe outer surface of the sap-wood as high sscan be conveniently reached, or 15 feet and upwards.' This shaving rises about two feet in a year, and thus it takes about seven years to finish one side of a tree. The side edges of the bored surface are carefully kept perpendicular and straight, and not quite to embrace the balt'ofthe trunk of the tree. Next, the opposite side is “boxed,” and treated in the same way, taking care to leave a strip of an inch or two of bark on each side between the old and the newer work. Without other cause ol'decay or destruction. the trees will live and yield well until the sides or, be shaved no higher. But the spreading ot'accidental fires selgom fails to kill the tree earlier. For the entire face of the cutting being encrusted with turpentine, and the wood below being converted to solid lightwood, no trees can be more inflammable ; and the fire burns so deeply in, as to kill the strips of living bark by heat, or to weaken the trunk so much that it yields to, and is prostrated by, the next storm. The trees, or parts that escape being burnt, are finally cut up into billets, and the tar extracted from them, by burning them slowly in a close kiln, made by covering the lightwood with earth in the mode well known in every pine country.
It is only the turpentine that retains its fluidity, and is collected in the box, that is considered firstrate. The part that sticks to and hardens above has lost its most valuable part, the oil or spirits of turpentine,) by evaporation, an when scraped off, which is the last part ofthe process, is sold at half the price of the fluid turpentine. Of course the expense of land-carriage is a suificient bar to the production of so heavy and low-priced products, where the distance is considerable.
The turpentine getters are careful every spring to rake away the leaves from the foot of every tree, and to burn the collected trash when it can be done slowly and stately. But they cannot always command the progress of the fires; and from that, or other less carelhlly made fires, great havock is olien mode among the boxed trees.
Where vicinity to market, or cheapness of carriage, permits this business to be in full operation, it cannot last long, as the long leaf pines will be destroyed and will not be renewed. The other kinds of pines are not worth working for this purpose.
Source: The Farmers' Register ©1840
The turpentine and tar business.
The making of turpentine and tar is the almost sole business of the thinly settled population of the pine lands. They are generally poor and indolent; yet this business allords good profits even at the present low prices, and enormous profits were made when naval stores were tuore than double their present prices. Turpentine now sells at 81.80 the barrel at Wilmington, and it has sold for upwards of $4. Mr. Lazarus told me that he had paid to a poor white man, who worked singly and unassisted in making turpentine, 81000 lbr the fruits of his labor of one year. It is understood that a good hand can attend to 9000 trees, and can secure 200 barrels of turpentine in a year.
In commencing the operation on trees untouched, a receptacle (or “box”) is cut by the axe on one side of the tree, and about six inches above the ground, which is large enough to hold a quart of the fluid turpentine which exudes from the cut sap-wood, and which flows into this hollow from the upper part and sides. The flowing of the sap begins of course in the spring. At the end of a few days, (according to the time and state of the season,) the laborer visits all his trees, collects turpentine and puts it in barrels. He then cuts from each side of the tree a shallow groove, inclining downward to the box, through the bark and a little into the wood. Into these new cuts the turpentine exudes, and flows down them into the box. The tool by which this operation is performed is called a “shave.” It is a circular piece of iron like the eye of a weeding hoe, with the lower edge sharp, and which is attached to a shaft or handle, so as to cut its groove like a gouge, but by being pulled to, instead ol'being pushed from. the operator.
Every time the box is emptied of its turpentine, the “shaving” is extended upward, and thus gradually making the tree bare of bark and ofthe outer surface of the sap-wood as high sscan be conveniently reached, or 15 feet and upwards.' This shaving rises about two feet in a year, and thus it takes about seven years to finish one side of a tree. The side edges of the bored surface are carefully kept perpendicular and straight, and not quite to embrace the balt'ofthe trunk of the tree. Next, the opposite side is “boxed,” and treated in the same way, taking care to leave a strip of an inch or two of bark on each side between the old and the newer work. Without other cause ol'decay or destruction. the trees will live and yield well until the sides or, be shaved no higher. But the spreading ot'accidental fires selgom fails to kill the tree earlier. For the entire face of the cutting being encrusted with turpentine, and the wood below being converted to solid lightwood, no trees can be more inflammable ; and the fire burns so deeply in, as to kill the strips of living bark by heat, or to weaken the trunk so much that it yields to, and is prostrated by, the next storm. The trees, or parts that escape being burnt, are finally cut up into billets, and the tar extracted from them, by burning them slowly in a close kiln, made by covering the lightwood with earth in the mode well known in every pine country.
It is only the turpentine that retains its fluidity, and is collected in the box, that is considered firstrate. The part that sticks to and hardens above has lost its most valuable part, the oil or spirits of turpentine,) by evaporation, an when scraped off, which is the last part ofthe process, is sold at half the price of the fluid turpentine. Of course the expense of land-carriage is a suificient bar to the production of so heavy and low-priced products, where the distance is considerable.
The turpentine getters are careful every spring to rake away the leaves from the foot of every tree, and to burn the collected trash when it can be done slowly and stately. But they cannot always command the progress of the fires; and from that, or other less carelhlly made fires, great havock is olien mode among the boxed trees.
Where vicinity to market, or cheapness of carriage, permits this business to be in full operation, it cannot last long, as the long leaf pines will be destroyed and will not be renewed. The other kinds of pines are not worth working for this purpose.
Source: The Farmers' Register ©1840
Monday, July 14, 2014
Calico Fabric and Printing
Below are some tidbits about Calico Printing and fabric. While the fabric design did not start in the 19th Century, in fact it began in the 1700's, it was definitely an important part of our 19th century ancestors or characters.
Calico Printing is perhaps the most important branch springing from the parent stem of the cotton trade: it may be described as the art and process by which colours are placed on to the plain fabric, giving variations of form, and gradations of colour, more cheaply and expeditiously than in the loom;
...
The common import of the term Calico-Printer now, is a printer of all sorts of fabrics—calicoes, muslins, linens, silks, or woollens, or the many mixed varieties, composed of different materials.
Source: Calico Printing As an Art Manufacture, a Lecture ©1852
TOPICAL Dyeing or Calico Printing, is the art of printing various coloured patterns upon plain calicoes by applying certain colourless mordaunts to the cloth.
This beautiful art is one of great antiquity, and was carried to considerable perfection in India. As the object in this brief sketch is not to instruct the calico printer, but to give the general reader an idea of this singular art, we shall omit all the previous processes of preparing the calico for the printer.
The pattern to be impressed on the calico was formerly cut out in relief on a wooden block of the requisite size, exactly like a wooden cut for figures or diagrams. The wood used was generally holly, and the cutting of the pattern formed a separate trade called block-cutting. The perishable nature of wood, however, involved the printer often in much expense, and hence a great improvement has taken place by using slender pieces of brass or copper, which are fixed on the wood so as to produce the pattern, and which give greater sharpness and precision to the impressions. The next implement is the sieve with its case. The sieve consists of a broad hoop like that of a tambourin with a piece of superfine woollen cloth stretched tightly across it. The case consists of another wider hoop covered witli sheep skin or oil cloth. The sieve placed in its case is now plunged in a tub of gum water.
The mordaunt mixed up with paste made of flour or a thick solution of gum Arabic, or gum Senegal, or gum nigacanth, is then spread with a brush on the cloth of the sieve, a part of the process which is called teesing. When the mordaunt is colourless, as the acetate of alumine, a little purple dye with a decoction of Brazil wood is mixed up with it to sighten it as the workmen say, or to make the pattern apparent to the eye.
The workman now takes the pattern block in one hand and the sieve in the other, and applying the surface of the block to that of the sieve, he then takes up a sufficient quantity of the thickened mordaunt so as to cover every part of the surface of the pattern formed by the copper lines. He then applies the block to the calico and impresses it with a gentle blow from a mallet. In this manner he goes over the whole piece. When a variety of colours is required, several different mordaunts are required, as different colours require different mordaunts to fix them. In order to evaporate the acids of the mordaunts, which might weaken the fabric of the cloth, the calico is placed in a room called the stove/heated with flues to about 90°. When the common red liquor mordaunt is used, the calico remains here about 24 hours; but when citric acid is used, a much shorter time is nesessary, and when a strong muriate of lime has been employed, half an hour of the stove is sufficient.
When iron liquor is the mordaunt, the intensity of the colour is increased, and the process much improved by exposing the calico for several days to the atmosphere. The black oxide of iron then acquires an additional dose of oxygen, and approaches nearer to the red or peroxide, which is the preferable mordaunt. Mr. Parker suggests it as an object of inquiry, whether or not the substitution of a current of atmospheric air for a great part of the drying in the stove, might not be an advantage.
The calico is now washed with water and a little cow dung, at various temperatures, an operation of from 5 to 40 minutes, which revives the uncombined part of the mordaunt, and which is now performed in what is called dunging machines. Mr. Parker is of opinion, that the dung, (which Bethollet found to contain a substance like bile,) imparts an animal matter to the fibres of the calico, which acts as an additional mordaunt. When the goods are perfectly rinsed in river and
tepid water, they are boiled for ten or fifteen minutes in madder, and in the process called maddering, the calicoes receive, at one operation, all their requisite colours. The colouring matter of the madder is precipitated to a red by one mordaunt, to a purple by another, and to a black by a third, so that we can obtain every possible shade, from a lilac to a black, or from a pink to a red.
By adding to the madder some weld or bark, every shade from zbrown to an orange may be produced, and with weld or bark, also, we obtain all colours from a dark olive to a bright lemon. In order to produce the finest yellow or delicate lemon colour, the calico should be dried in the open air, as stove drying converts a yellow to an orange, and the dunging ■should not be performed at a higher temperature than 96° or 100°.
The calicoes are next to be branned, an operation which is effected by removing them from the weld or madder copper to a boiler containing wheat bran and water, in which all stains are cleared from the white portion, though at the risk of the colours being somewhat impaired. Mr. Parker has found that a peculiar redness may be imparted to all madder colours, by raising them with a mixture of bran and madder, that is, by adding a little bran to the madder, in the maddering process.
As the whites cannot always be cleared by the branning, lest the colours should be impaired, the rest of the operation of bleaching the whites is performed by exposure on the grass for some days; but in Scotland, this process has been effected in a few minutes, by immersion of the colours in a weak solution of one of the bleaching sails, such as oxymuriate of potash, soda, and magnesia.
The mordaunts used by the calico printers are oommonly acetate of iron for browns, blacks, lilacs, &c. and aeelate of alumine for all shades of yellows and reds, &c. Nitrate of iron, obtained by dissolving metallic iron in a peculiar kind of aquafortis, yields blacks, which, like those obtained from galls, are applied at once to the cloth, and are not afterwards raised by dying, like the black of the common iron liquor. Hence the black of the nitrate of iron can be mixed with other colours.
Another kind of calico printing, called resist work, is now in common use. A resist paste is composed of sulphate, nitrate, muriate, or acetate of copper, of which the sulphate is the best, mixed with flour paste, or any of the other gums, or with pipe-clay and gum. With this paste the pattern is printed on the calico, which when sufficiently dry is repeatedly dipped in the blue vat, till they have received the requisite depth of tint. The goods are then washed and passed through diluted sulphuric acid, and all the parts printed by the preparation of copper are found to be of a good white, in consequence of having resisted the action of the indigo, though all the rest of the calico has been permanently dyed. The deep blue calicoes, with white figures or white spots, are generally executed by the resist process with indigo; and by a peculiar method, with subsequent dying or madder, weld or bark, red or yellow spots or figures may be produced upon a blue ground.
A method of resisting;, or stopping out particular colours with wax, though an expensive one, ■was formerly in general use, and wax is still employed in India for preserving the white portions. In the manufacture of silk Bandana handkerchiefs, a preparation of tallow and ro3in, made fluid by heat, is used for printing the patterns, which are thus left white, and preserved from the operation of the indigo, which gives the rest a blue colour.
When the ground is to be white, and only a single sprig or small object is to form the pattern, it is executed by means of a pencil, with what is called pencil blue, which is formed of 10 oz. of finely ground indigo, 20 oz. of quick lime in lumps, 20 oz. of potash of commerce, and 10 oz. of orpiment, mixed up in a gallon of water, and thickened with gum Senegal.
In another operation of calico printing, called chemical discharge work, the goods are dyed of one uniform colour, with a mixture of iron iiquor, and any of the dyeing substances. When they are washed, dried, turned, and calendered, a discharging liquor is prepared by dissolving in one of the mineral acids a portion of one or more of the metals, according to the nature of the colour to be discharged, or of that to be produced. For example, if a piece of calico, treated with a decoction of Brazil wood, and dyed black by being maddered with iron liquor, be printed when dry, with a peculiar solution of tirr, the iron in the dye will be dissolved, and the printed part will instantly be converted from a deep black into a brilliant crimson.
The introduction of cylinder printing into the calico manufacture, is a most important step in its progress. Cylinders from 18 to 42 inches long, and from 3i to 5 inches wide, are now formed by hammering plates of copper into a circular form, though sometimes they are bored out of a solid mass of copper. The pattern is enchased on the surface. The cylinders furnish themselves with colouring matter, placed in a trough, and are kept clear by a steel knife, called the doctor, which passes over the surface, when they are charged with the thickened colour. The cylinder, thus coloured, rolls over the piece of calico, from one end to the other, and communicates the pattern with the greatest certainty and accuracy. Sometimes two cylinders are used to give two different colours at the same time. Mr. A. Parkinson of Manchester, has invented a machine, on which one cylinder and two surface rollers give three distinct colours.
Other machines have been employed, called surface machines. They consist of cylinders of wood, with the pattern formed upon them, exactly like the pattern blocks already described. By means of those cylinder machines, a piece of calico, which employs a man and a boy three hours, may be done in three or three and a half minutes.
Hence the British calico printer has been able to finish calico goods, in which the printing consists of precipitating the colouring matter of logwood and other vegetable dyes, without using any mordaunt or previous preparation whatever, at the rate of one penny per yard, including every expense of colour, paste, and printing. In such goods, the pat
tern will be washed out by the first shower of rain. For a full account of topical dyeing in calico printing, the reader is referred to Parke's Chemical Essays, from the information contained in which we have drawn up the above brief article. See also our article Bandana Handkerchiefs, Vol. III. p. 213.
Source: The Edinburgh Encyclopedia ©1832
Calico Printing is perhaps the most important branch springing from the parent stem of the cotton trade: it may be described as the art and process by which colours are placed on to the plain fabric, giving variations of form, and gradations of colour, more cheaply and expeditiously than in the loom;
...
The common import of the term Calico-Printer now, is a printer of all sorts of fabrics—calicoes, muslins, linens, silks, or woollens, or the many mixed varieties, composed of different materials.
Source: Calico Printing As an Art Manufacture, a Lecture ©1852
TOPICAL Dyeing or Calico Printing, is the art of printing various coloured patterns upon plain calicoes by applying certain colourless mordaunts to the cloth.
This beautiful art is one of great antiquity, and was carried to considerable perfection in India. As the object in this brief sketch is not to instruct the calico printer, but to give the general reader an idea of this singular art, we shall omit all the previous processes of preparing the calico for the printer.
The pattern to be impressed on the calico was formerly cut out in relief on a wooden block of the requisite size, exactly like a wooden cut for figures or diagrams. The wood used was generally holly, and the cutting of the pattern formed a separate trade called block-cutting. The perishable nature of wood, however, involved the printer often in much expense, and hence a great improvement has taken place by using slender pieces of brass or copper, which are fixed on the wood so as to produce the pattern, and which give greater sharpness and precision to the impressions. The next implement is the sieve with its case. The sieve consists of a broad hoop like that of a tambourin with a piece of superfine woollen cloth stretched tightly across it. The case consists of another wider hoop covered witli sheep skin or oil cloth. The sieve placed in its case is now plunged in a tub of gum water.
The mordaunt mixed up with paste made of flour or a thick solution of gum Arabic, or gum Senegal, or gum nigacanth, is then spread with a brush on the cloth of the sieve, a part of the process which is called teesing. When the mordaunt is colourless, as the acetate of alumine, a little purple dye with a decoction of Brazil wood is mixed up with it to sighten it as the workmen say, or to make the pattern apparent to the eye.
The workman now takes the pattern block in one hand and the sieve in the other, and applying the surface of the block to that of the sieve, he then takes up a sufficient quantity of the thickened mordaunt so as to cover every part of the surface of the pattern formed by the copper lines. He then applies the block to the calico and impresses it with a gentle blow from a mallet. In this manner he goes over the whole piece. When a variety of colours is required, several different mordaunts are required, as different colours require different mordaunts to fix them. In order to evaporate the acids of the mordaunts, which might weaken the fabric of the cloth, the calico is placed in a room called the stove/heated with flues to about 90°. When the common red liquor mordaunt is used, the calico remains here about 24 hours; but when citric acid is used, a much shorter time is nesessary, and when a strong muriate of lime has been employed, half an hour of the stove is sufficient.
When iron liquor is the mordaunt, the intensity of the colour is increased, and the process much improved by exposing the calico for several days to the atmosphere. The black oxide of iron then acquires an additional dose of oxygen, and approaches nearer to the red or peroxide, which is the preferable mordaunt. Mr. Parker suggests it as an object of inquiry, whether or not the substitution of a current of atmospheric air for a great part of the drying in the stove, might not be an advantage.
The calico is now washed with water and a little cow dung, at various temperatures, an operation of from 5 to 40 minutes, which revives the uncombined part of the mordaunt, and which is now performed in what is called dunging machines. Mr. Parker is of opinion, that the dung, (which Bethollet found to contain a substance like bile,) imparts an animal matter to the fibres of the calico, which acts as an additional mordaunt. When the goods are perfectly rinsed in river and
tepid water, they are boiled for ten or fifteen minutes in madder, and in the process called maddering, the calicoes receive, at one operation, all their requisite colours. The colouring matter of the madder is precipitated to a red by one mordaunt, to a purple by another, and to a black by a third, so that we can obtain every possible shade, from a lilac to a black, or from a pink to a red.
By adding to the madder some weld or bark, every shade from zbrown to an orange may be produced, and with weld or bark, also, we obtain all colours from a dark olive to a bright lemon. In order to produce the finest yellow or delicate lemon colour, the calico should be dried in the open air, as stove drying converts a yellow to an orange, and the dunging ■should not be performed at a higher temperature than 96° or 100°.
The calicoes are next to be branned, an operation which is effected by removing them from the weld or madder copper to a boiler containing wheat bran and water, in which all stains are cleared from the white portion, though at the risk of the colours being somewhat impaired. Mr. Parker has found that a peculiar redness may be imparted to all madder colours, by raising them with a mixture of bran and madder, that is, by adding a little bran to the madder, in the maddering process.
As the whites cannot always be cleared by the branning, lest the colours should be impaired, the rest of the operation of bleaching the whites is performed by exposure on the grass for some days; but in Scotland, this process has been effected in a few minutes, by immersion of the colours in a weak solution of one of the bleaching sails, such as oxymuriate of potash, soda, and magnesia.
The mordaunts used by the calico printers are oommonly acetate of iron for browns, blacks, lilacs, &c. and aeelate of alumine for all shades of yellows and reds, &c. Nitrate of iron, obtained by dissolving metallic iron in a peculiar kind of aquafortis, yields blacks, which, like those obtained from galls, are applied at once to the cloth, and are not afterwards raised by dying, like the black of the common iron liquor. Hence the black of the nitrate of iron can be mixed with other colours.
Another kind of calico printing, called resist work, is now in common use. A resist paste is composed of sulphate, nitrate, muriate, or acetate of copper, of which the sulphate is the best, mixed with flour paste, or any of the other gums, or with pipe-clay and gum. With this paste the pattern is printed on the calico, which when sufficiently dry is repeatedly dipped in the blue vat, till they have received the requisite depth of tint. The goods are then washed and passed through diluted sulphuric acid, and all the parts printed by the preparation of copper are found to be of a good white, in consequence of having resisted the action of the indigo, though all the rest of the calico has been permanently dyed. The deep blue calicoes, with white figures or white spots, are generally executed by the resist process with indigo; and by a peculiar method, with subsequent dying or madder, weld or bark, red or yellow spots or figures may be produced upon a blue ground.
A method of resisting;, or stopping out particular colours with wax, though an expensive one, ■was formerly in general use, and wax is still employed in India for preserving the white portions. In the manufacture of silk Bandana handkerchiefs, a preparation of tallow and ro3in, made fluid by heat, is used for printing the patterns, which are thus left white, and preserved from the operation of the indigo, which gives the rest a blue colour.
When the ground is to be white, and only a single sprig or small object is to form the pattern, it is executed by means of a pencil, with what is called pencil blue, which is formed of 10 oz. of finely ground indigo, 20 oz. of quick lime in lumps, 20 oz. of potash of commerce, and 10 oz. of orpiment, mixed up in a gallon of water, and thickened with gum Senegal.
In another operation of calico printing, called chemical discharge work, the goods are dyed of one uniform colour, with a mixture of iron iiquor, and any of the dyeing substances. When they are washed, dried, turned, and calendered, a discharging liquor is prepared by dissolving in one of the mineral acids a portion of one or more of the metals, according to the nature of the colour to be discharged, or of that to be produced. For example, if a piece of calico, treated with a decoction of Brazil wood, and dyed black by being maddered with iron liquor, be printed when dry, with a peculiar solution of tirr, the iron in the dye will be dissolved, and the printed part will instantly be converted from a deep black into a brilliant crimson.
The introduction of cylinder printing into the calico manufacture, is a most important step in its progress. Cylinders from 18 to 42 inches long, and from 3i to 5 inches wide, are now formed by hammering plates of copper into a circular form, though sometimes they are bored out of a solid mass of copper. The pattern is enchased on the surface. The cylinders furnish themselves with colouring matter, placed in a trough, and are kept clear by a steel knife, called the doctor, which passes over the surface, when they are charged with the thickened colour. The cylinder, thus coloured, rolls over the piece of calico, from one end to the other, and communicates the pattern with the greatest certainty and accuracy. Sometimes two cylinders are used to give two different colours at the same time. Mr. A. Parkinson of Manchester, has invented a machine, on which one cylinder and two surface rollers give three distinct colours.
Other machines have been employed, called surface machines. They consist of cylinders of wood, with the pattern formed upon them, exactly like the pattern blocks already described. By means of those cylinder machines, a piece of calico, which employs a man and a boy three hours, may be done in three or three and a half minutes.
Hence the British calico printer has been able to finish calico goods, in which the printing consists of precipitating the colouring matter of logwood and other vegetable dyes, without using any mordaunt or previous preparation whatever, at the rate of one penny per yard, including every expense of colour, paste, and printing. In such goods, the pat
tern will be washed out by the first shower of rain. For a full account of topical dyeing in calico printing, the reader is referred to Parke's Chemical Essays, from the information contained in which we have drawn up the above brief article. See also our article Bandana Handkerchiefs, Vol. III. p. 213.
Source: The Edinburgh Encyclopedia ©1832
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
1871 Bread Factory
Over the years I've heard people think that there weren't manufactured goods in America until the late 19th Century. This is not the case. Today's post is a picture from the Evening Telegraph a Philadelphia, PA newspaper dated March, 11, 1871. In the picture you'll see a sketch of the interior of a bread bakery. You'll notice on the right hand side a table for kneading the bread, on the center table you'll see lots of loaves of bread. You'll also note a lot of pulleys and belts to move the baking pans through the ovens as well as mixing the dough. It's a great picture of an example of some of the earlier factories in this country.
If you'd like to read a little bit more about aerated bread check out this article in Wikipedia
If you'd like to read a little bit more about aerated bread check out this article in Wikipedia
Friday, March 7, 2014
Textile Fibers
Below are excerpts from Scissors & Yardsticks 1872
TEXTILE Fibers are of two classes,—animal and vegetable. The animal fibres comprise SILK, WOOL, and HAIR. The vegetable fibres comprise OOTTON, HEMP, and FLAX. A few others are, however, often included in the latter class of textile fibres, as JUTE, COIR, ABACA or MANILA, CHINA GRASS, SUNN, PINA, PLANTAIN, ALOE, etc.
SILK.
A delicate fibre of great strength used in the manufacture of fabrics of high lustre and great durability. It is obtained from the cocoon of a worm called the silkworm, which obtains its sustenance from the leaves of the mulberry-tree. These worms were first known in China, where silk manufacture was first carried on to any
great extent.
...
WOOL
The fleecy substance which covers a sheep, and some other animals, as the beaver, ostrich, lama, the goats of Thibet, Cachamyr, etc.
Sheeps' wool alone possesse the fulling or felting property. ...
Wools are distinguished in commerce as Fleece wool and Dead wool. The former is obtained from the annual shearing of the sheep. The latter is shorn from dead animals. The dead wool is harsh and weak, and incapable of taking a good dye.
...
COTTON
A soft, downy substance, resembling wool, produced by the cotton-plant.
...
FLAX
Flax is a fibrous plant, called by botanists linum, consisting of a single slender stalk, the skin or bark of which is used for making thread, and cloth called linen, cambric, lawn, etc.
...
HEMP
A fibrous plant, closely allied to flax.
The skin, or bark, is used for making cloth, cordage, etc., and for the same purposes generally as flax.
...
JUTE
Jute is a kind of coarse grass, similar to flax, but much inferior in quality.
...
COIR
The coarse fibre of the Cocoa-nut husk.
It is used in the manufacture of mattings, cordage, etc.
...
ABACA, OR MANILA-HEMP
A fibrouse material, obtained from a plant allied to the banana, growing in the Phillippine Islands. The outer layer of fibres is called VANDALA, and is used for cordage. The inner layer is called LUPIS, which is used in weaving delicate fabrics. Between these are intermediate layers of fibre, called TUPOz, used in weaving fine cloths and guazes.
...
CHINA-GRASS
A long, fine grass, from Canton, Hong-Kong, and Asam. Three crops are produced yearly. The first is coarse, and the others are very fine, and are used in the manufacture of delicate fabrics.
SUNN
A kind of fibrous flax, resembling jute.
It is cultivated in the same countries, and used for the same purpose.
PLANTAIN
The fibre of the banana tree, which is a species of Manila-hemp, but coarser.
...
PINA
The inner fibre of the pineapple tree. It is very fine, and spun like flax. It is also very expensive, as it can be obtained only in small quantities. It is used in the manufacture of muslins, and other fine fabrics.
ALOE
A Fine, silk-like grass, from Turin, of which very fine and lustrous fabrics are woven. It is not very durable.
TEXTILE Fibers are of two classes,—animal and vegetable. The animal fibres comprise SILK, WOOL, and HAIR. The vegetable fibres comprise OOTTON, HEMP, and FLAX. A few others are, however, often included in the latter class of textile fibres, as JUTE, COIR, ABACA or MANILA, CHINA GRASS, SUNN, PINA, PLANTAIN, ALOE, etc.
SILK.
A delicate fibre of great strength used in the manufacture of fabrics of high lustre and great durability. It is obtained from the cocoon of a worm called the silkworm, which obtains its sustenance from the leaves of the mulberry-tree. These worms were first known in China, where silk manufacture was first carried on to any
great extent.
...
WOOL
The fleecy substance which covers a sheep, and some other animals, as the beaver, ostrich, lama, the goats of Thibet, Cachamyr, etc.
Sheeps' wool alone possesse the fulling or felting property. ...
Wools are distinguished in commerce as Fleece wool and Dead wool. The former is obtained from the annual shearing of the sheep. The latter is shorn from dead animals. The dead wool is harsh and weak, and incapable of taking a good dye.
...
COTTON
A soft, downy substance, resembling wool, produced by the cotton-plant.
...
FLAX
Flax is a fibrous plant, called by botanists linum, consisting of a single slender stalk, the skin or bark of which is used for making thread, and cloth called linen, cambric, lawn, etc.
...
HEMP
A fibrous plant, closely allied to flax.
The skin, or bark, is used for making cloth, cordage, etc., and for the same purposes generally as flax.
...
JUTE
Jute is a kind of coarse grass, similar to flax, but much inferior in quality.
...
COIR
The coarse fibre of the Cocoa-nut husk.
It is used in the manufacture of mattings, cordage, etc.
...
ABACA, OR MANILA-HEMP
A fibrouse material, obtained from a plant allied to the banana, growing in the Phillippine Islands. The outer layer of fibres is called VANDALA, and is used for cordage. The inner layer is called LUPIS, which is used in weaving delicate fabrics. Between these are intermediate layers of fibre, called TUPOz, used in weaving fine cloths and guazes.
...
CHINA-GRASS
A long, fine grass, from Canton, Hong-Kong, and Asam. Three crops are produced yearly. The first is coarse, and the others are very fine, and are used in the manufacture of delicate fabrics.
SUNN
A kind of fibrous flax, resembling jute.
It is cultivated in the same countries, and used for the same purpose.
PLANTAIN
The fibre of the banana tree, which is a species of Manila-hemp, but coarser.
...
PINA
The inner fibre of the pineapple tree. It is very fine, and spun like flax. It is also very expensive, as it can be obtained only in small quantities. It is used in the manufacture of muslins, and other fine fabrics.
ALOE
A Fine, silk-like grass, from Turin, of which very fine and lustrous fabrics are woven. It is not very durable.
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