Anonymous

“ These operations are conducted in a large shed, where the rollers stand like awful combinations of infernal machines and patent mangles; where a boding and vengeful tilt-hammer, worked by steam, is tended by a man, who sits like a calm fate beside its crushing bulk, and supplies it with fresh victims; where the awful boom seems to shatter the very atmosphere, and deafness reigns triumphant. ”

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

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

“ The first process for finding coal is to bore with iron tools a perpendicular hole in the ground; then if coal is discovered, a shaft, or pit, from ten to fifteen feet in diameter, is sunk, and lined with brick, cast iron, or wood, to prevent the admission of water and the falling in of the sides. When the shaft reaches a seam of coal, passages are made, twelve to fourteen feet wide, and varying in height with the coal; from these proceed smaller ones, which are again crossed by large ones, enormous blocks of coal being left to support the earth above. ”

“ All the machines for grinding corn and seeds are mills, whatever may be their particular application. One very common form is that of an iron machine, supported on four legs, having a winch handle on one side, a fly wheel on another, a hopper at the top, and a crushing apparatus in the centre. The grain or seed is put into the hopper, the winch handle is turned, the grain becomes crushed to powder, and falls out at the bottom of the apparatus. Sometimes the mill is made chiefly of wood, but with iron wheel and crushing apparatus. ”

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

“ The fumes which rise from the midst of the coloured fire are peculiar and penetrating, and the zinc eliminated from the molten brass falls in a metallic snowstorm, its flaky particles adhering to everything with which they come in contact, while the resistance of the sand to the metal causes a series of reports like muffled pistol-shots. ”

“ The building for a vertical windmill is generally a wall of timber or brickwork, in the form of a frustrum of a cone, and terminated above by a wooden dome, which is capable of revolving horizontally upon it. A ring of wood, forming the lower part of the dome, rests upon a ring of the same material at the top of the wall, and the surfaces in contact being made very smooth, the dome may easily be turned round upon the wall; and is prevented from sliding off by a rim which projects from it, and descends over the interior circumference of the lower ring. ”

“ Tin is a silvery-white metal possessed of a high degree of metallic lustre. It is sufficiently soft to be cut with a knife, and may be readily bent, when it gives out a peculiar crackling noise; if repeatedly bent and straightened, it becomes hot from the friction of its particles with one another, and ultimately breaks. It is inelastic and moderately ductile, but very malleable, the thickness of tin-foil being about one thousandth part of an inch. It has but little tenacity, a wire of one-tenth of an inch in diameter not being able to support a heavier weight than 49 lbs. ”

“ The smaller kinds of brushes are called tools or fitches, and are used for small surfaces, such as ornaments and mouldings round panels, when the colour is generally taken from a palette—a round slab of wood, with a hole through which the thumb of the left hand passes in order to hold it. The brushes must never be allowed to get dry, but when not in use must be kept in water: it is always best to keep a brush for each colour. Another part of the Painter’s business which requires more skill, is graining and marbling ”

“ A chisel and knife are necessary for removing any inequalities or overflowings of size from the edge of the frame; the feather duster is used to dust the new gilding before it is sent home; the size pot is the vessel in which the size is melted, and the pan receives it before it is laid on. The putter-down is a large soft brush used for pressing down the gold into the ornaments, and removing the ragged edges of the gold-leaf from those parts of the frame where it is most difficult to place it smoothly. ”

“ In a breast wheel, the water has no previous fall, and therefore does not strike the floats at the bottom of the wheels, as in the undershot wheel, with an increased velocity. The breast wheel is therefore fixed in what is called a race, formed of stone or brick work, agreeing with the curvature of the wheel, and being thus let on from its own level, acts both by its weight and momentum, or movement. This wheel is unlike the undershot wheel, being close boarded round its circumference, like an overshot or balance wheel, [260] the undershot wheel being always open ”

“ A cotton card is a sort of brush, containing wires instead of bristles. The cards are made of bands or fillets of leather, or are formed of alternate layers of cotton, linen, and india-rubber pierced with numerous holes, in which are fixed bent pieces of iron wire, called dents or teeth.
The fibres of the cotton are not yet sufficiently level to be twisted into yarn; and it often happens that the teeth of the card lay hold of a fibre by the middle and thus double it together, in which state it is unfit for spinning. ”

“ Of course one length of pipe is not sufficient to go to any great distance, and a joint has frequently to be made, the solder used for this purpose being so easily melted and so readily combining with the pipe itself, which is of almost the same material, that the flame from prepared tow blown to an intense heat by the blow pipe is sufficient for the purpose. The rasp is used for filing the surface at the ends of the pipes where they are to be joined, and the waxed rushes to try the joints in order to see that there is no escape of gas through some small hole. ”

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

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

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

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

“ There are many women, too, who get a livelihood by closing the shoe, while others again follow the various sorts of binding.
The mechanical processes, after marking and cutting out the leather, consist chiefly in various kinds of strong needlework, such as the lasting or tacking of the upper leather to the in-sole, the sewing in of the welt, the stitching to this welt of the out or top sole, the building and sewing down of the heel, and the sewing or closing of boot legs. The boot closer is the most skilful of the persons employed, and receives the highest wages. ”

“ There are often lumps here and there where there is too much glue, and these are remedied by the veneering hammer, the head of which is made of wood furnished with a strip of iron plate. This strip is laid flat on the veneer, and the head of the hammer pressed with the hand while it is worked about by the handle, pressing out the glue as it moves towards the edge. When a piece of furniture is too large to be covered with one veneer, these thin slabs of wood are laid on in several pieces, the edges being first planed quite straight and made to meet with the greatest accuracy. ”

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

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

“ The trade seems to have been brought to England by the Romans, and many of the most ancient buildings in this country are made of very fine brickwork, though, till the reign of Elizabeth, only large mansions were so built, the common houses being formed of frame-works of timber filled in with coarse plaster supported by laths of wood.
There are few more interesting sights than a brick-field [3] in full work with its great sheds, its horses going slowly round and round in the mills, grinding the clay which has been dug out of the deep pits ”

“ Brass is not a pure metal, but is what is called an alloy, that is, a mixture of various metals. It is composed of copper and zinc in such proportions as may be necessary to [103] obtain various degrees of hardness and colour, according to the use for which the compound is to be employed. The best proportions for common brass are about two parts of copper to one part of zinc. Formerly brass was made by heating copper with calamine (which is the ore of zinc) and charcoal, but it is now formed from melting the two metals together. ”

“ One cylinder machine, attended by one man to regulate the rollers, is capable of printing as many pieces as one hundred men and one hundred girls could print with hand blocks in the same time. A mile length of calico can be printed off with four different colours in a single hour.
This cylinder machine consists of a hollow cylinder or roller of copper, about three feet long and three or four inches in diameter, the pattern on which has been produced by the pressure of a mill, on which the design has been [150] originally stamped by the pressure of a hard steel roller which has been engraved. ”

“ It is this process of fork grinding which has so often been made a subject for comment; the fork is ground dry upon a stone wheel, and the particles of steel and grit are constantly entering the lungs of the workmen, thereby ruining the health and shortening the duration of life. ”

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

“ Though uncivilized nations, and even some which had made [2] great progress in civilization, but lived in very warm or exceedingly cold climates, frequently built dwellings of wood, of wattles or strips of trees and branches covered with clay and lime, and of rough stone and earth; and though whole tribes lived and still live under tents, or in mere log huts and wigwams, or lodges made of the skins of animals, the manufacture of bricks formed of clay, and either burnt with fire or dried in the sun, is amongst the oldest of all known trades. ”

“ The blades of table-knives are ground on wet stones, the grinding stone being suspended, for that purpose, in an iron trough filled with water to a [185] sufficient height to make the surface of the fluid just touch the face of the stone. The grinding stones, as well as the glazers and polishers, are turned by machinery worked by steam power. A flat stick is used by the grinder to keep the blade pressed to the surface of the stone. The ground blades are then glazed, which simply means that a higher degree of lustre and smoothness is given them by grinding on a tool termed a glazer. ”

“ The rot in timber is commonly divided into two kinds, the wet and the dry, but the chief difference between them is, that where the timber is exposed to the air, the gaseous products are freely evaporated; whilst, in a confined situation, they combine in a new form, viz. the dry-rot fungus, which, deriving its nourishment from the decaying timber, often grows to a length of many feet, spreading in every direction, and insinuating its delicate fibres even through the joints of brick walls. ”

“ The chalk mill is a round trough where the chalk is ground by heavy wheels fitted with spikes on their tires or hoops, and turned by one or two horses. The trough is supplied with water from a pump, and the chalk, as it is ground, runs off by a wooden gutter into the clay mill, where it is again stirred and ground till it mixes with the clay; the mixture then runs through a grating and through other gutters to the brick earth, which has been placed in heaps to receive it. ”

“ Water-pipes are made by lead being cast in moulds with a steel rod passing through their middles, according to the size required. The lead is poured into the space between the rod and the mould. After it is cool the rod is drawn out by machinery, and the mould which is made in halves is opened and the pipe taken out. The pipe is then much thicker and shorter than is required for use, but it is afterwards drawn between powerful iron rollers with grooves cut in their surfaces, an iron rod being again placed inside it. ”