Iron hoop

“ Axes, however, were more prized than any other article, and the exhibition of one was certain to produce great eagerness to procure it, amidst much shouting and cries of kelumai! The purpose to which they applied the iron hoop we found was to substitute it for the pieces of a hard greenstone (nephrite) in the heads of their axes and adzes. The one figured above represents the usual form of these instruments. The V-shaped handle is a single piece of wood, and the stone, previously ground down to a fine edge, is fixed in a cleft at the end of the short arm, and firmly secured by cordage. ”

“ The hoop net is a very destructive engine. For large and deep waters the mesh should be an inch and three quarters, the length full nine feet, and the hoops (of which that in the centre should be iron, rounded like a curtain rod, and painted red to prevent its rusting) should be strong and three feet high. In laying hoop nets, place them where the water gets tolerably deep from a gravelly scour. All the infallible attraction of brass candlesticks, yellow ribands, flowers, and looking-glasses, are superseded by the arcanum of encircling a live fish brought from other waters in each hoop net ”

“ They cost about ten shillings the hundred weight, and twenty-eight pounds are required to make a single barrel of the ordinary size. A hoop of iron about an inch broad, or six or seven inches diameter, is placed perpendicularly, and the stubs, previously freed from dirt by washing, are neatly piled in it, with their heads outermost on each side, until the hoop is quite filled and wedged tight with them, the whole resembling a rough circular cake of iron. ”

“ Hazel is now largely used in making the crates in which the product of the Potteries is packed. The cleanest growths were formerly made into the hoops of barrels, and one might see thousands of bundles stacked in a clearing. But iron is killing the hoop-makers' industry. ”

“ At a given signal each player dashes towards his opponent, and strives to overturn his hoop. The four victors now pair off, and charge two against two. The conquerors then urge their hoops one against the other, and he who succeeds in overturning the hoop of his antagonist wins the game. Wooden hoops are more suitable for Tournament than iron ones, though the game is usually played with the latter. ”

“ We soon, however, detected that this regularity of their attitudes was caused by the insertion in the floor of various chords of hoop iron, the outer rims of which they all touched with their toes. A finer set of children we have seldom beheld ”

“ When iron axles were first used it was customary to drive an iron ring or hoop, 2 or 3 inches broad, into either end of the nave, to prevent too rapid wear. This plan is still used occasionally in heavy carts, but otherwise axles are always fitted with iron boxes, adjusted to the arms with more or less accuracy, according to the price and the material used for lubrication. For the prevention of friction in wooden axles soap or black-lead is the best materials; for common, coarse axles, a thick unctuous grease is the best adapted ”

“ Experiment No. 14.—Forged steel hoop, turned and bored, 18.53 inches in circumference outside by 2.375 inches deep by .27 inch thick, heated to redness, then cooled one-half its depth in water (see Fig. 1437 at g for final form of hoop after three heatings and coolings) .
The shrinkage of iron and steel by cooling rapidly is sometimes taken advantage of by workmen to refit work, the principles involved in the process being as follows:—
Fig. ”

“ The fact is that we had not finally left our mother earth, but have been pulled down again by a rope, held by the assistants, which was attached to the hoop by an instrument called the ‘liberating iron.’ The aëronaut himself lets the balloon take its final departure when he touches a lever attached to the liberating iron, and we are being pulled down again on the present occasion because it is found that we have too much ascending power, and can take in another half bag ballast ”

“ When by any accident they are broken, the only remedy is to procure new ones, the people being ignorant of any cement with which to unite the pieces; and probably the expense of iron work would amount to more than that of new stones; nay, I question whether they have a blacksmith in this part of the country who could forge hoops to brace them. The only precaution taken to prevent such accidents is the passing a number of thongs of raw hide, while fresh, round the stones, and when dry they are not perhaps very inferior to iron hoops. ”

“ It is made parallel for about 1/6th of its length at the centre, tapering from thence to the extremities, the side next the shackle being kept straight and the remaining three sides tapered. The section at any part is square, the dimensions being 1/10th of the length at the centre and half of this at the ends. The two pieces are fastened together by four iron bolts near the shank, six or eight treenails, au11 six iron hoops at the ends. The hoops are driven on tightly while hot, so that the contraction of the iron in cooling may draw the parts closely together. ”

“ Crofton Croker, who compiled a descriptive catalogue of these rings, thought might probably mean “in God is a remedy.” Fig. 145 furnishes a good example of a fashion of hoop-ring prevalent in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, flat inside and angular outside. Each face is inscribed with the same talismanic names. It is formed of cheap mixed metal, was found in London, and presented to the collection by Mr. Roach Smith.
[124]
Inscriptions on rings became at this time very common, nor were they confined to mystic or sacred words. ”

“ The hoops are from ten to twelve inches in diameter, made of some light wood, as bamboo, covered with bright colored silks and wound with silver cord or some tinsel chenille.
The game is usually played by only two players, each taking two wands and one hoop, and standing at a distance from each other; the two wands are held in the hands across each other like open scissors. The object is to throw and catch the hoop [216] upon these wands. When trying to catch the hoop the sticks are held like scissors shut, and are opened apart when the hoop is thrown from you. ”

“ If the stick is a stout one you get rid of the skidding noise made by the hook, and there is more satisfaction in beating a thing along than in, as it were, pushing it. It should be every one's aim to make the hoop do as much as possible with as little treatment as possible. After a very fast run it is equally interesting to see how slowly a hoop can be made to travel. To make it keep as straight a course as may be is very absorbing. Bought hoops can be strong, but to get exactly what one wants it is necessary to go to a blacksmith. ”

“ At Le Creusot a remarkable test of hoops was witnessed, which exemplifies not only the excellence of the manufacture of the steel but also the exacting character of the French requirements. The hoops for naval guns are made with the interior surface slightly conical. When forged, turned, and brought under a hammer, a standard mandrel of steel, conically shaped to suit the form of the cone in the hoop, but of a slightly increased diameter, is introduced, the smaller end of the mandrel being able to enter the larger end of the hoop. ”

“ This ring (Fig. 170) is shown (a) as it appears when closed. It parts into three hoops, secured on a small pivot, as seen (b) ; the toothed edge of the central hoop forming an ornamental centre to the hoop of the ring, and having two hearts in the middle; a hand is affixed to the side of the upper and lower hoop; the fingers slightly raised, so that when the hoops are brought together, they link in each other, and close over the hearts, securing all firmly.
A mechanical ring of still greater mystic significance is shown, Fig. 171, and is one of the most curious of the Londesborough series. ”

“ The inner hoop is sure to fit so tightly within the outer one that if the material to be embroidered is at all thick, neither persuasion nor force will make it slip into place. A new hoop is now being made which can be adjusted for goods of any thickness. ”

“ The hand-hammer has always been an important tool, and, in the form of the stone celt, it was perhaps the first invented. When the hammer of iron superseded that of stone, it was found practicable in the hands of a "cunning" workman to execute by its means metal work of great beauty and even delicacy. But since the invention of cast-iron, and the manufacture of wrought-iron in large masses, the art of hammer-working has almost become lost ”

“ Improvements in plate-rolling machinery, and in appliances for bending and stamping wrought-iron, have materially assisted in developing the introduction of wrought-iron and steel sleepers. Cast-iron and wrought-iron are, in the abstract, hard and non-elastic as compared with wood; but whereas cast-iron can only be made into fixed, unyielding shapes, wrought-iron and steel can be worked into forms that possess a certain spring-like effect, which not only enables them almost entirely to resist fracture, but also imparts a measure of elasticity to the permanent way. ”

“ There are many modifications of these general rules and methods, and it may be necessary in certain cases, such as the ironing of braids stiffened with media other than gelatine or water soluble materials, to employ other methods, but they are generally peculiar to the plait used and of a purely ephemeral nature. In some factories box irons are used, heated by patent fuel, others are warmed by gas and electricity, but the general convenience of the fire-heated pad causes the old fashioned iron to retain an almost universal supremacy. ”

“ Steel for ornaments is made extremely hard and close-grained, so as to bear an exquisite polish. Common hammered iron is chiefly used for works of strength, as horseshoes, bars, bolts, and the like. It will bend but not straighten itself again, as you may see in the kitchen poker. Cast iron is used for pots and caldrons, cannons, cannon-balls, grates, pillars, and many other purposes in which hardness without flexibility is wanted. ”

“ To make a quartz ball, a large crystal or mass is chipped or broken into available shape, and then the piece is trimmed into a spherical form with a small steel hammer. The polishing is effected by grinding with emery and garnet-powder and plenty of water, in semi-cylindrical pieces of cast iron, of sizes varying with that of the ball to be ground, which is kept constantly turning as it is rubbed. Small balls are fixed in the end of a bamboo tube, which the worker continually revolves. ”

“ This is a proverbial expression of the age when iron is, at least, the dominant if not the only metal for weapons. If, then, this line be as old as the rest of the Odyssey, in which weapons are always of bronze, its maker has let out that all the other makers have been saying what they do not mean; and in an age of iron, or overlap of bronze-and iron, have consistently maintained that all weapons are of bronze, while tools are of iron, as a rule. ”

“ Iron-filings, (for this Steel-dust is nothing more than pure iron reduced into small particles by filing or some other method,) when free from rust, and not mixed with any impurities, answer very well; but fire-work [36] makers generally prefer cast-iron reduced to powder, by beating thin plates of it on a cast-iron anvil with a heavy hammer, and sifting the broken particles through sieves of brass or iron wire, of different degrees of fineness, so as to separate the particles into grains of various sizes, according to the magnitude of the pieces. ”

“ The Greek and Hellenistic periods, from the sixth to the second century B.C., furnish a large variety of forms, some copied or adapted from earlier ones and then independently developed. A rounded hoop tapering upward, with ornamental extremities, occasionally appears in fine examples, the ends of the hoop representing the lions’ masks; the bezels are frequently of oval shape, and the shoulders of the hoop are often nearly straight; in another type while the outside of the hoop is rounded, the inside is facetted; sometimes there is a high convex bezel, bevelled underneath. ”

“ If two or more strings entangle the hoop, then the boys owning those strings must carry the hoop between them. The hoop must on no consideration be touched by the hands of those on side B, unless no string entangles it, when it is thrown back to side A and counts as one game to them. After a set of twenty games the other side trundles the hoop. A modification is made in the game by throwing the hoop in the air. ”

“ They skip, following lines as indicated by arrows in A, with arms in upward bend position and hoops arched overhead. When the leaders reach lines R and L, the skip step is changed to a march, and they join hoops with partners so as to make a complete hoop with bows at each side. This is a very easy movement, though it may seem the contrary. Those on the right extend the inside arm straight to the side, shoulder-high, holding the end of hoop with the arch down. Those on the left extend their arms in the same way with the arch up. ”

“ His friend Gray, though in his famous ode he touched upon the school games, expressed no particular enthusiasm for athletics:—
What idle progeny succeed
To chase the rolling circle’s speed.
Or urge the flying ball?
Gray, it should be added, originally wrote
To chase the hoop’s elusive speed,
for, extraordinary as it may appear to the modern Etonian, the hoop was formerly in high favour with Eton boys. Trundling a hoop has long been recognised as one of the best forms of exercise ”

“ Sharp irons are formed according to the shape, which is designed for the sole or heel; these irons are placed on a pair of wet hides, and brought under an iron press, which is worked like those in the mint. The boys who distinguish themselves by their industry and good behaviour, are placed in the first class, and carry on the left arm a brass plate, with the inscription, first class, as a mark of distinction. Those on the contrary, who have endeavoured to escape, drag a chain with a heavy iron ball. The period of detention in this institution is left to the discretion of the commissioners ”