F. REMNANT, Binder, 9, LovelVs Courts Paternoster Row. The JFaterman, THE BOOK ENGLISH TRADES, THE USEFUL ARTS.- WITH EIGHTY-SIX WOOD-CUTS, A NEW EDITION. LONDON: PRINTED FOR C. & J. RIVINGTON, Booksellers to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge ; ST. Paul's church-yard, AND WATERLOO-PLACE, PALL-MALL, 1827. Printed by R. Gilbert, St. John's- square, London, CONTENTS. PAGE The Apothecary ^ 1 The Attorney 5 The Baker ' - • 9 The Basket-makei- , , 15 The Bleacher 19 The Bookbinder 24 The Bookseller 29 The Brazier 33 The Brewer 37 The Bricklayer 45 The Brick-maker • - • • • • » • 49 The Brush-maker , , , , 53 The Button-maker « 57 The Cabinet-maker - » ■ ♦ 60 The Calico-printer 65 The Carpenter 70 The Carpet-weaver , 75 The Chemist and Druggist 79 The Coach-maker 84 The Comb-maker 89 The Confectioner. , 94 The Cooper 98 The Copper-plate Printer , 103 The Cork-cutter 1 06 The Currier , 109 The Cutler , : 114 The Distiller 119 The Dyer 125 The Engraver 130 The Gardener 136 The Glass-blower 143 The Gold-beater 148 The Gun- maker 152 The Hair-dresser 159 The Hatter 163 The Iron-founder 173 The Jeweller 178 The Lace-maker 183 The Ladies' Dress-maker ... t « «. ^ ....... . 187 iv CONTENTS. PAGE The Linen-draper • . • • 190 The Looking-glass-maker , 395 The Machinist , 199 The Mariner 203 The Merchant 210 The Musical-instrument maker 215 The Needle-maker 225 The Optician 229 The Painter. 237 The Paper-maker 241 The Pewterer 24a The Pin-maker 252 The Plumber and Glazier 256 The Potter 261 The Printer 266 The Rope-maker 274 The Saddler 278 The Sawyer 282 The Shipwright 285 The Shoe-maker 291 The Smith 295 The Soap-boiler ; 299 The Spinner 305 The Statuary c 308 The Stocking- weaver 311 The Stone-mason ..r 316 The Straw-bonnet-maker • '. 320 The Tallow-chandler 323 The Tanner 328 The Tailor 333 The Tin-plate-worker 337 The Trunk-maker 341 The Turner 344 The Type-founder 847 The Watch-maker 352 The Weaver 359 The Wheelwright , 363 The Wire-drawer 367 The Wool-comber 371 Description of Machines. Iron Foundry 374 Bramah's Crane 376 AWater-Miil ib. The Circular Saw 376 The Oxy-Hydrogen Blow -Pipe 377 The Watch 378 Cotton-spinning Machine * 379 Cotton- weaving Machine •••••• 380 Gas-Hght Apparatus 3^i2 The Still SSH The Safety Lamp ib. THE BOOK OF TRADES^ THE APOTHECARY. The office of an Apothecary is to attend on sick persons, and to prepare and to give them medicines, either on his own judgment, or according to the prescription of the Physician. It is well known that the word ApothecUy signi- fied originally any kind of store, magazine, or ware- house; and that the proprietor or keeper of such a store was called Apothecarius. We must not, there- fore, understand by the word, when mentioned in writings two or three hundred years old, Apothe- caries such as ours are at present. At those pe- riods, persons were often called Apothecaries who, at court, and in the houses of great people, pre- pared for the table various preserves, particularly fruit incrusted with sugar, and who, on that account, may be considered as confectioners. Hence, per- haps, we see the reason why Apothecaries were in this country combined with the grocers till the reign of James the First. They were then separated, and the Apothecaries v/ere incorporated as a com- pany : the reason assigned for this was, that medi- cines might be better prepared, and that unwhole- some remedies might not be imposed on the sick. From this period. Apothecaries were distinguished for selHng drugs, used in medicine, and preparing from them different compounds, according to the prescriptions given by physicians and others. Prior to this, it is probable. Physicians usually prepared B ' 2 Book of Trades. their own medicines ; and it has been thought that they gradually became accustomed to employ Apo- thecaries for the sake of their own convenience, when they found, in their neighbourhood, a drug- gist in whose skill they could confide, and whose interest they wished to promote, by resigning in his favour that part of the occupation. Such an employment as that of an Apothecary is, liowever, mentioned at a much earlier period of our history; for it is said, that King Edward the Third gave a pension of sixpence a day to Coursus de Gangeland, an Apothecary in London, for taking care of and attending his majesty during his illness in Scotland; and this is the first mention of an Apothecary. In the year 1712, the importance of this profession was acknowledged by an Act of Parhament, which exempted, for a hmited time, Apothecaries from serving the ofiices of constable, scavenger, and other ward and parish offices, and from serving upon juries; which act was, a few years afterwards, made perpetual* The Apothecaries, as a body, have a hall near Bridge Street, Blackfriars, where there are two magnificent laboratories, out of which all the sur- geons are supplied with medicines for the British Navy. Here also, drugs of all sorts are sold to the public, which may be depended upon as pure and unadulterated. They are obliged to make up their medicines according to the formulas prescribed in the Dispensary of the Royal College of Physicians, and are liable to have their shops visited by censors of the College, who are employed to destroy such medicines as they think not good. But as almost all persons who practise in this profession are men of liberal education, and acquainted with the theory and practice of chemistry, there are very few of them who do not prepare their own drugs, either wholly or in part. 5 The Apothecary. 3 In many places, and particularly in opulent cities, the first Apothecaries' shops were established at the public expense, and belonged in fact to the ma- gistrates. A particular garden also was often ap- propriated to the use of the Apothecary, in order that he might rear in it the necessary plants, and which was therefore called the Apothecaries' garden. In conformity to this principle Sir Hans Sloane, in the year 1721, presented the Apothecaries' com- pany with a spacious piece of ground at Chelsea, for a physic-garden, on condition of their paying the small ground-rent of 51. per annum ; of con- tinuing it always as a physic-garden, and of present- ing to the Royal Society fifty samples of different sorts of plants grown there, till they amounted to two thousand. The latter of these conditions has been long since more than completed. In this garden there are two very magnificent cedars, which were planted in 1683, and were then about three feet high. The pine-tree, the coffee- tree, the tea-shrub, and sugar-cane, are amongst the curiosities which may be seen at this place. This is a very genteel business ; a youth intended to be an Apothecary should be a good scholar, at least he should know as much Latin as to be able to read the best writers in the various sciences connected with medicine. Indeed, the late Act of Parliament renders it more necessary than ever for a person to be well acquainted not only with the classics, but with Botany, the Materia Medica, Chemistry y Anatomy^ and the outlines of Medicine: for by that Act, passed in 1815, a Court of Exa- miners is appointed by the Apothecaries' Company to examine into the qualification of every person applying for a certificate to practise as an Apothe- "cary in England and Wales: for which certificate, when obtained, 10/. 10,y. are to be paid for every Apothecary practising in London or within ten miles of it ; and for a certificate to practise in the country, 4 Book of Trades, 61. 6s. are to be paid. Even Assistants to Apothe- caries must now undergo examination. The price of a certificate for an Apothecary's assistant is 21. 2s, — The penalty of practising without a certificate is 201. — Assistants' penalty 51, There is also a numerous class of medical men in London, and various parts of England and Wales, called Surgeon and Apothecary, to which is com- monly added the designation of Man-midwife; and to such persons, in the country more especially, are the lives and health of by far the greater part of the community intrusted, by those whose finances will not enable them to consult a regular Physician. These of course must undergo an examination not only at Apothecaries' Hall, but at the College of Surgeons. All persons applying for a certificate to practise as an Apothecary, must produce testimonials of having served at least five years Apprenticeship to an Apothecary ; and, in general, five years are the usual number for which Apprentices are bound. The premium is very various : sometimes two hun- dred guineas have been given. — An assistant or journeyman to an Apothecary will sometimes have from forty to eighty pounds per annum, or more, exclusive of his board ; but in general the salaries are much lower, often not exceeding twenty-five. The principal expense in establishing a young man as an Apothecary is his education, certificate, &c. His whole stock in trade, exclusive of books, does not often exceed the value of one hundred pounds. In China they have a singular mode of dispensing their medicines. In the public squares of their cities, there is a very high stone pillar, on which are engraven the names of all sorts of medicines, with the price of each ; and when the poor stand in need of such assistance, they go to the treasury, where they receive the price each medicine is rated at. THE ATTORNEY. An Attorney primarily signifies any one who is appointed by anoiber to transact any business for him in his absence : but an Attorney- at-Law, of whom we are now to speak, is a person who ma- nages the Law business of another, for whom he is retained ; the term being analogous to the procu- rator or proctor of the civilians and canonists in the ecclesiastical courts. Anciently, according to the old Gothic constitu- tions, every suitor was obliged to appear and pro- secute or defend his suit in person, unless by spe- cial license from the king ; and this still continues to be the rule in criminal cases. But by sundry old statutes from that of Westm. 2. c. 10, permission was granted to Attornies to prosecute or defend any civil suit in the absence of the parties. An idiot, however, cannot at this day, prosecute or defend by his Attorney, but must appear in person. Attornies are admitted to the execution of their office, by the superior courts at Westminster Hall. They are considered as officers of the respective courts in which they are admitted ; on which account, they enjoy many privileges; and are peculiarly subject to the censure and animadversion of the judges. In order to enable a person to practise as an Attorney, in any of these courts, he must be ad- mitted and sworn an Attorney of that particular court : and an Attorney in the court of King's Bench cannot practise in the Common-Pleas, nor can an b3 6 Book of Trades. Attorney in the Common-Pleas, practise in tlie court of King's Bench. To practise in the court af Chancery, it is also necessary to be admitted a So- licitor therein. The business of an Attorney is one of the most important occupations which can engage the atten- tion of a conscientious man, in the present state of society. To him, the oppressed repair to learn by what means the oppressor is to be resisted ; to him, the orphan and the friendless look, as to one who knows how to direct them to recover their property or their rights. The Attorney it is to whom, as a Conveyancer in preparing deeds, bonds, mortgages, marriage settlements, &c. we confide the transfer and security of our monies, our goods, and our es- tates. It is the Attorney before whom we lay those documents, upon his opinion of which we buy and sell land, houses, and a variety of other property depending more especially upon what is usually called, the Title to their possession. By these means, it is the Attorney who has an opportunity of knowing the most intimate affairs of individuals in every relative situation in life ; and it is the Attor- ney, thus invested with so much power, who has an opportunity of becoming either a blessing or a curse to the neighbourhood in which he resides: for such is now the complexity of our laws, that it is scarcely possible for a plain and simple-minded man 'to meddle with them without having his Attor- ney at his elbow, unless he choose to run the great risk of being overthrown and defeated, even in the best of causes. If, therefore, instead of that manliness and inte- grity, which should dignify an Attorney, he abuse the confidence reposed in him, and descend to the low and petty arts of fomenting litigation and strife between contending parties, for the mere purpose of filling his own pocket, or to gratify the malignity of some tyrant of power, it is evident that there is The Attorney. 7 no term in language sufficiently strong to designate the man. If, on the contrary, an upright man, well acquainted with the laws and their forms, but knowing the fallibility of human nature, and the fallible nature of testimony too, if such a man should be an Attorney, how much strife can he not prevent, how much misery and distress can he not cure ! The legislature has, from time to time, passed various acts relative to the conduct and powers of Attornies, who are liable to be punished in a sum- mary way, either by attachment, or having their names struck off the roll, for ill practice, attended with fraud and corruption, and committed against the obvious rules of justice and common honesty; but the court will not easily be prevailed on to pro- ceed in this manner, if it appears that the matter complained of was rather owing to neglect or acci- dent, than design; or if the party injured, has other remedy by act of Parliament, or action at law. Attornies have the privilege to sue, and be sued, only in the courts at Westminster, where they practise. Besides the obligations of fidelity to his client the Attorney owes him secresy; and in certain cases, an action lies at the suit of his client for neglect of duty: but such actions are extremely rare. Persons who are bound clerks to Attornies or Solicitors, are to cause affidavits to be made and filed of the execution of the articles, names and places of abode, of Attorney or Sohcitor, and clerk, and none are to be admitted till the affidavit be produced and read in court; no Attorney having discontinued business, is to take a clerk. Clerks are to serve actually during the whole time, and make affidavits thereof. Persons admitted sworn clerks in Chancery, or serving a clerkship to such, may be admitted Solicitor. By the stat. 23 Geo. 2. c. 26, any person duly admitted a Solicitor, may admitted an Attorney, without any fee for the 8 Book of Trades. oath, or any stamp to be impressed on the parch- ment whereon his admission shall be written, in the same manner as, by stat. Geo. 2. c. 23. § 20, Attor- nies may be admitted Solicitors. Every Attorney and Solicitor must annually take out a certificate from the courts in which they prac- tise: if the Attorney resides in London, and has been admitted three years or upwards, the stamp duty, for his certificate, is ten pounds; if less than three years, five pounds: if he reside elseivhere, and has been admitted three years or more, the stamp for his certificate is six pounds; less than three years, three pounds. The stamp duty for the articles for an Attorney's clerk, in order to have admission to the courts of lav/, is one hundred and ten pounds. The late acts of parliament having made it more expensive to become an Attorney, it is presumed that incompetent, vulgar, and illiterate persons, must have more difficulty to get into the profession, and in consequence, the respectability of the Attor^ ney ought to be increased. The expense of establishing a young man as an Attorney, consists in an apprentice fee of some- times three, or even five hundred guineas, the ex- penses afterwards, in admission to the courts of law, the stamp duties and books ; which, if properly selected, amount in value, to many hundred pounds. Some young men who are desirous of excelling as Attornies, will, after the expiration of their clerk- ship, place themselves in the office of some eminent Attorney in London, to obtain experience, or be- come pupils to a Barrister for a limited time. Baker, THE BAKER. The business of the baker consists in making bread, rolls, and biscuits, and in baking various kinds of provisions. Man, who appears to be designed by nature to eat of all substances that are capable of nourishing him, and still more of the vegetable than the animal kind, has, from the earliest times, used farinaceous grains as. his principal food; but as these grains cannot be eaten in their natural state without diffi- culty, means have been contrived for extracting the farinaceous part, and of preparing it so as to render it a pleasant and wholesome aliment. Those who are accustomed to enjoy all the ad- vantages of the finest human inventions, without reflecting on the labours it has cost to complete them, think all these operations common and tri- vial; and it is not to be wondered that, to such, there should appear nothing more easy than to grind corn, to make it into paste, and to bake it in an oven. It is however certain that, for a long time, men did not otherwise prepare their corn than by boiling it in water, and forming viscous cakes, which were neither agreeable to the taste, nor easy of digestion. To make good bread, it was necessary to construct machines for grinding and separating the pure flour with little labour and trouble ; and inquiries, or perhaps accident, of which some observing person availed himself, discovered that flour, when mixed b5 10 Booh of Trades. with a certain quantity of water, and moderately heated, would ferment, by which its viscidity might be nearly destroyed, and bread might be made more pleasant to the taste, and easy of digestion. No great care was taken in ancient times to bake bread: the hearth of the fire was commonly used for the purpose. This method is still adopted by the poor and lower class of farmers, in many parts of England. The ancients laid upon the hearth a piece of flattened dough, and covered it with hot ashes, under which it remained until it was suffici- ently baked. In England, at the present time, an iron pot is inverted over the loaf intended to be baked, and placed upon the hot hearth, and hot ashes are placed around and upon the pot. The invention of ovens is, however, very ancient. They are spoken of in the time of Abraham. Some writers give the honour of their discovery to a per- son named Annus, an Egyptian, but who is wholly unknown in history. There is, however, reason to believe that the ovens of the ancients were very different from ours ; being, as far as we may judge of them, made of a kind of earthen pan, which could be easily carried from one place to another : indeed, this mode of baking still subsists in the East. It is not known when this very useful business first became a particular profession. Bakers were a distinct body of people in Rome, nearly two hun- dred years before the Christian aera, and it is sup- posed that they came from Greece. To these were added a number of freemen, who were incorporated into a college, from which neither they nor their children were allowed to withdraw. They held their effects in common, without enjoying any power of parting with them. Each bake-house had a patron, who had the superintendency of it; and one of the patrons had the management of the others, and the care of the college. So respectable were The Baker. 11 the bakers at Rome, that occasionally one of the body was admitted among the senators. Even by our own statutes, the bakers are declared not to be handicrafts. Bread is made of flour, mixed and kneaded with yeast, water, and a little salt ; the salt making the bread more perfect by being dissolved in water, the fluid penetrating the flour in the most intimate manner; by which the bread becomes more hght, better tasted, and will keep a longer time. It is known in London under two names, the white, or wheaten, and the household: these differ only in degree of purity ; and the loaves must be marked with a W, or H, or the baker is liable to suffer a penalty. The process of bread-making is thus described ; to a peck of flour are added a handful of salt, a pint of yeast, and three quarts of water, cold in summer, hot in winter, and temperate between the two. The whole being kneaded, as is represented in the plate, will rise in about an hour ; it is then moulded into loaves, and put into the oven to bake. The oven takes more than an hour to heat pro- perly: the time of baking is regulated by the qua- lity of the flour, of the dough, hard dough requiring more time than soft, and by the bigness and form of the loaves. Half an hour is sufficient for soft and spongy loaves of one pound weight, when there is no milk in them, because water evaporates quicker than milk. A loaf of twelve pounds should remain about three hours in the oven; of eight pounds, two hours ; of six pounds, one hour ; of three pounds, fifty minutes; of two pounds, three quarters of an hour; one pound and a half, thirty-five minutes; of one pound, half an hour. In general, the more sur- face the loaves have, the sooner they are baked, whence it arises that small loaves remain a less time in the oven, in proportion to their form and weight, than large ones. b6 12 Book of Trades, Most bakers make and sell rolls in the morning ; these are either commoriy or French rolls: the for- mer differ but little from loaf-bread : the ingre- dients of the latter are mixed with milk instead of water, and the finest flour is made use of for them. Rolls require only about twenty minutes for baking. The life of a baker is very laborious; the greater part of the work being done by night: the journey- man is required always to commence his operations about eleven o'clock in the evening, in order to get the new bread ready for admitting the rolls in the morning. His wages are, however, but very mode- rate, seldom amounting to more than ten shillings a week, exclusive of his board. The price of bread is regulated according to the price of wheat; and bakers are directed in this by the magistrates, whose rules they are bound to fol- low. By these the peck-loaf of each sort of bread must weigh seventeen pounds six ounces, avoirdu- poise weight, and smaller loaves in the same propor- tion. Every sack of flour is to weigh two hundred and a half {i. e.) 280 lbs. and from this there ought to be made, at an average, twenty such peck loaves, or eighty common quartern loaves. If bread were short in its weight only one ounce in thirty-six, the baker formerly was liable to be put in the pillory ; and for the same offence he may now be fined, at the will of the magistrate, in any sum not less than one shilling, nor more than five shil- lings for every ounce wanting; such bread being complained of, and weighed in the presence of the magistrate, within twenty-four hours after it is baked, because bread loses in weight by keeping. The process of biscuit-baking, as practised at the Victualling Office at Deptford, is curious and inte- resting. The dough, which consists of flour and water only, is worked by a large machine. It is then handed over to a second workman, who slices it with a large knife for the bakers, of whom there are five. The Baker. The first, or the moulder^ forms the biscuits two at a time ; the second, or marker, stamps and throws them to the sphtter, who separates the two pieces, and puts them under the hand of the chucker, the man that suppUes the oven, whose work of throwing the bread on the peel must be so exact that he can- not look off for a moment. The fifth, or the depo- sitor, receives the biscuits on the peel, and arranges them in the oven. All the men work with the great- est exactness, and are, in truth, like parts of the same machine. The business is to deposit in the oven seventy biscuits in a minute; and this is ac- complished with the regularity of a clock, the clack- ing of the peel operating like the motion of the pen- dulum. There are twelve ovens at Deptford, and each will furnish daily bread for 2040 men. By referring to the plate, we see the baker repre- sented in the act of kneading his dough: the bin, upon which he is at work, contains the flour : on his right hand is the peel, with which he puts in, and takes out, the bread: at his back we see the repre- sentation of the fire in the oven, and in the front is the pail in which the yeast is fetched daily from the brew-house ; and by the side of the flour-bin, on the ground, is the wood used to heat the oven. It is said that scarcely any nation lives without bread, or something as a substitute for it. In Lap- land, where there is no corn, a kind of cake is made of dried fishes, and the inner bark of the pine ; this mixture would lead us to suppose that they did not expect nourishment from it, but only a dry substance which should be eaten, and would distend the sto- mach and bowels. The Norwegians make a bread that will keep thirty or forty years ; and the inhabi- tants esteem old and stale bread far beyond that which is new; so much so, that particular care is taken to have the oldest bread at their great feasts. It frequently happens at the christening of a child, 14 Book of Trades. that their guests are supplied with bread which has been baked at the birth of a father, or even grand- father. This bread is said to be made of barley and oats, and baked between two hollow stones. The Basket Maker, THE BASKET-MAKER. The ancient Britons have been celebrated for their skill in the manufacture of baskets, from the time of the Romans ; and so much were the baskets of this country valued by that people, that immense quantities of them were exported to Rome, where they were held in great estimation, and bore so high a price, that they are mentioned by Juvenal, among the extravagant and expensive furniture of the Ro- man tables of his time. Baskets are made either of rushes, splinters, or willows, which last are, according to their growth, called osiers or sallov»^s. They thrive best in moist places ; and the proprietors of such marsh lands ge- nerally let what they call the willow-beds to persons who cut them at certain seasons, and prepare them for basket-makers. To form an osier bed, the land should be divided into plots six, eight, or ten feet broad, by narrow ditches, and if there is a power of keeping water in these cuts, at pleasure, by means of a sluice, it is highly advantageous in many sea- sons. Osiers planted in small spots, and along hedges, will supply a farmer with hurdle-stuff, as well as with a profusion of all sorts of baskets. The common osier is cut at three years, but that with yellow bark is permitted to remain a year longer. When the osiers are cut down, those that are in- tended for white-work, such as baskets used in washing, are to be stripped of their bark or rinds while green. This is done by means of a sharp in- 16 Book of Trades. strument fixed into a firm block: the osiers are passed over this, and stripped of their covering with great velocity. They are then dried and put in bundles for sale. Before they are worked up^ they must be previously soaked in water, which gives them flexibility. The mode of operation is very well displayed in the print : the basket-maker usu- ally sits on the ground to his business, unless when the baskets are too large for him to reach their up- per parts in that position. Hampers and other coarse work are made of osiers without any previous preparation except soak- ing. Some expert workmen make a variety of arti- cles of wicker manufacture, as work-baskets of dif- ferent descriptions, table-mats, fruit baskets for desserts, &c. Even in the coarser articles, a man well skilled in his trade, will earn three or four shil- lings a day. On the right and left of the plate we see bundles of osiers ready for use; on the ground by the side of the workman there are some with which he is at work, and round about him are a variety of different kinds of baskets upon which he has shown his skill. By some accident it once happened that a rich man and a poor pennyless basket-maker were thrown on a distant island, inhabited only by a savage race of men. The former seeing himself exposed to ap- parent danger, without the means of assistance or defence, and ignorant of the language of the people in whose power he was, began to cry and wring his hands in a piteous manner : but the poor man, ever accustomed to labour, made signs to the people, that he w^as desirous of becoming useful to them; on which account they treated him with kindness, but the other they regarded with contempt. One of the savages found something like a fillet, with which he adorned his forehead, and seemed to think himself extremely fine. The basket-maker, taking advantage of his vanity, pulled up some The Basket-maJcer. 17 reeds, and, sitting down to work, in a short time finished a very elegant wreath, which he placed upon the head of the first inhabitant he chanced to meet. This man was so pleased with his new acqui- sition, that he danced and capered about for joy, and ran to seek his companions, who were all struck with astonishment at this new and elegant piece of finery. It was not long before another came to the basket-maker, making signs that he also wanted to be ornamented like his companion, and with such pleasure were these chaplets received by the whole tribe, that the basket-maker was continually employ- ed in weaving them. In return for the pleasure which he conferred upon them, the grateful savages brought him every kind of food which their country afforded, built him a hut, and showed him every demonstration of gratitude and kindness. But the rich man, who possessed neither talents to please, nor strength to labour, was condemned to be the basket-maker's servant, and cut him reeds to supply the continual demand for chaplets. Such are the advantages of industry and mgenuity. The business of a basket-maker requires but a small capital, either of money or of ingenuity, in consequence of which, it has been fixed upon as one of the most proper occupations for that class of our suffering fellow-creatures, the indigent blind, for whom asylums are established in different cities of the empire, and where the art of basket-making is carried to a surprising degree of perfection. Be- sides affording the pupils instruction gratis, these asylums allow them a weekly sum, proportioned to the nature of their work, and the proficiency made by them, thereby relieving them, in some degree at least, from the painful idea of absolute dependence on the bounty of others ; and, which is of scarcely less importance, affording them an active employ- ment for those hours which would be otherwise spent in despondency and gloom. 18 Book of Trades. Baskets have, of late years, been introduced by coach-makers, to form the bodies of gigs, for which purpose they are particularly well calculated, as we know of no other means, whereby so much strength can be obtained with so little weight. The mail carts in London are baskets, and many of the stage coaches have baskets placed behind them, for the purpose of carrying parcels ; and we are convinced that the principle of basket-making might be ex- tended with good effect, to many other purposes, where the three qualities of strength, lightness, and elasticity are required. On the shores of North America, is found a re- markable fish, called the basket-fish. Its body resembles that of a star-fish, and it is furnished with numerous arms to catch its prey. When caught with a hook, it clasps the bait, and encircles it with its many arms, coming up in the form of a wicker? basket^ whence it has its name. I The Blcoc/n-r, THE BLEACHER. Bleaching is the art by which those manufac- tures, which have vegetable substances for their raw material, are freed from the colouring matter with which such substances are naturally combined, or accidentally stained ; and the pure vegetable fibre, deprived of these coloured matters, is left to reflect the different rays of light in due proportion, so as to appear white. Besides the spoils of animals, mankind, to sup» ply their natural want of covering, have, in all coun- tries, had recourse to vegetable substances, prefer- ring those whose fibres excelled in strength, dura- bility, and pliancy ; and experience having proved, that flax and cotton were well adapted to such purposes, these substances have been very gene- rally adopted, and formed into such cloths as the skill and industry of the weavers could execute. It would soon be observed, that the action of water, together with that of the sun and air, render- ed those rude cloths whiter than they were at their first formation; and since the first step towards refinement is to add beauty to utility, as the state of society improved, a desire to give them a pure and spotless white would naturally arise. The idea of white raiment being the emblem of innocence and peace, which seems to have been very early entertained, would make every means for faciHtating the removal of natural or adventitious stains mor^ earnestly studied. 20 Book of Trades. Accident would probably discover, that a certain degree of putrid fermentation carried off colouring matter from vegetable fibres. Hence the practice of macerating cloth in water, mixed with putrid urine and the dung of domestic animals, which has been continued to our days. From the earliest accounts we have of India, Egypt, and Syria, it appears that these enlightened nations knew the efficacy of natron, (the nitre of scripture,) an impure mineral alkali, found in these countries, for combining with, and carrying off, the colouring matters with which cloth is stained ; and it is still found in great abundance by the present inhabitants, and used for the same purpose. We are also informed by Pliny, that the ancient Gauls were acquainted with the use of a lixivium, extract- ed from the ashes of burnt vegetables, as a deter- gent, and knew how to combine this lixivium with animal oil to form soap. But though these nations appear to have early ac- quired some knov/ledge of the art of bleaching, the progress of improvement which they made in it, when compared to the advantages which some of them enjoyed, was very inconsiderable. The same practices seem to have been handed down from one generation to another, without any material im- provement. In India it would appear, that the art of bleaching, as well as that of staining of cloths of various colours, are not in greater perfection at pre- sent, than they are described to have been in the days of Herodotus. Even in Europe, when the arts, after they have been once introduced, have generally made rapid progress, the art of bleaching made very slow advances, till towards the end of the eighteenth century. At this period the oxy muriatic acid, and its effects, were discovered by Scheele; and its appli- cation to the art of bleaching, by Berthollet, has given it an impulse towards perfection unknown in The Bleacher. the history of any other art. It now became evi- dent that oxygen had an affinity with the colouring matters with which cotton and Hnen manufactures are stained ; and that, by a proper use of the alka- Hs, along with the oxymuriatic acid, these colouring matters could be removed, and the goods rendered white, in a space of time almost instantaneous, when compared with the former method of bleaching. Upon these discoveries the present improved state of bleaching is founded. The machinery and utensils used in bleaching are various, according to the business done by the bleacher. Where linen or heavy cotton cloths are whitened, and the busi- ness is carried on to a considerable extent, the machinery is both comph(Tated and expensive. It consists chiefly of a water-wheel, sufficiently power- ful for giving motion to the wash-stocks, dash- wheels, squeezers, &c. with any other operations where power is required. After the process of washing by the dash-wheel, the water is compressed from the cloth by means of squeezers. The boilers used in bleaching are of the common form, having a stop-cock at bottom for running off the waste ley. They are commonly made of cast iron, and are capable of containing from three hundred to six hundred gallons of water, according to the extent of the business done. The substances used in bleaching, are chiefly pot and pearl ashes, soda, soap, oxymuriate of potash, oxymuriate of lime, manganese, muriatic acid, and sulphuric acid. The common operations of bleaching, consist of steeping, bucking, boiling, immersion in the oxy- muriatic acid, souring, washing, &c. Steeping^ is a process made use of for cleansing the cloths designed to be bleached, from the sub- stances used by the weavers in their manufacture, and is principally effected by means of an alkaline ley at a blood-heat. 8 Book of Trades. Bucking is one of the most important operations in the bleaching of linen goods : it consists in boil- ing the cloths in caustic alkaline ley, by a heat gra- dually raised, and thereby dissolving, and taking off their colouring matter. Boilings in the bleaching of linen cloth, is only used when the goods are nearly white with pearl ashes alone, or with pearl ashes along with soap, towards the end of the whitening process. Immersion in the oxymuriate of potash. The linens, after being clean washed, are steeped in it for twelve hours, then drained, and washed for being further bucked or boiled. Souring is, in general, the last or finishing pro- cess in bleaching, as afterwards the linens are only further washed in spring water, in order to their being blued and made up for the market. In preparing the sour, into a large fir tub, lined with lead, as much sulphuric acid is added to water as will give it the acidity of strong vinegar. The acid and water must be well mixed together before immersing the linens, which are generally steeped in it for twelve hours. Where washing is mentioned, it must be always understood that the linen is taken to the wash- stocks, or dash-wheel, and washed well in them for some hours. This part of the work can never be overdone ; and on its being properly executed, be- tween every part of the bucking, boiling, steeping in the oxymuriatic acid, and souring, not a little of the success of bleaching depends. By exposure, is meant that the linen cloth .is taken and spread upon the bleach-green, for four, six, or eight days, ac- 3 54 Book of Trades. Whalebone split very fine, so as to resemble bris- tles, has of late been much used as a substitvite for hair, and will be generally found in most black- coloured brushes, mixed with the black hair. Some brush-manufacturers have also offered brushes made with whalebone entirely. They are of course cheaper, but not so durable. In choosing brushes, observe if the hair is fast bound, and if it lies close together ; if it is not well bound, and the hair appears to fly out, the brush will never w^ork well; and if the hair is not fast bound, it will come out on the work, and disfigure it, as is discoverable from loose hairs lying about when the paint is laid on. Brushes in w^hich the hair is fastened with a silver wire, are superior to those fastened with copper or iron wire, especially when they are to be used with water : brushes for the hat- maker are best fastened with card and wooden pegs, instead of wire and the usual cements, as they have to be frequently dipped in a boiling, though weak mixture of water and sulphuric acid. There are brushes of various sorts, shapes, and sizes ; but the structure of them all is the same, or nearly so. When the bristles are sorted, combed, and picked, a certain portion of them is taken and tied together in the middle wath string, fine copper, or iron wire, and then doubled : in this double state they are fastened into the wooden stock with hot cement, made of melted glue, or pitch and rosin. The ends of the hair are now to be cut off, and the surface to be made even or uniform. Common hearth-brushes and hair-brooms are made in a slighter way. As soon as the stock is brought to its proper shape, it is drilled, and the bushes inserted in the manner above mentioned. In some brushes, as those represented hanging on the beam, at the left-hand corner of the plate, the wires are visible on the back ; in others, the backs are smooth, there being thin slices of wood glued The Brush-maker. 55 over the wires. The brush resting with its head against the wall, is called a scrubbing-brush : brushes of this kind are sometimes used to dry-rub oaken floors ; in that case, the backs are loaded with lead. In London, and its vicinity, where the high wages of female servants render them impertinent and sloth- ful, it has become, by custom, a part of the man- servant's business to use them, but in the country, where wages are lower, the female servants consider this sort of w^ork theirs beyond dispute, and would ridicule a man for doing women's work." In this business, Mr. Thomassin, of Birmingham, has obtained a patent for a new method of making hearth-brushes, perhaps more ingenious than useful ; they are so constructed, as to conceal the hair in a metal case, by means of rack work. Mops are made of woollen yarn, spun for the pur- pose. Besides these, there are other kinds of mops, manufactured of woollen rags, which are collected by poor women from the dust taken from the dung- hills, &c. The coal-hods are usually made of oak, with two wooden or iron handles on the sides ; they are not so neat as copper ones, or as those made of iron and varnished : but they are much cheaper, and will last much longer than iron hods. Great nicety is required in making the corn mea- sures, which stand behind the man ; they must con- tain a certain exact quantity. The standard for measuring corn, salt, coals, and other dry goods, is the Winchester gallon, and it must contain 272^ cubic inches ; the bushel contains eight such gallons, or f^l78 inches. A journeyman in this business, will earn a guinea, or thirty shillings a week ; the profits to masters are pretty considerable where the I'eturns are great. Such are the divisions of labour in this country, that the same persons do not make the brushes and the long handles ; these last are made by turners, p 4 56 Book of Trades. who are thus employed by the master brush-maker^ In Kent-street, and several other places, there are broomstick manufactories. The making of birch- brooms is a distinct and profitable trade. The birch will grow in land which is hardly fit for any-thing else. Ground covered with moss, has been known to produce birch-trees so well, that in a few years they have sold for ten pounds per acre, and the after produce has been considerably increased. Besides broom makers, who are constant custom- ers for the birch : hoop-benders are considerable purchasers of the same article. The largest trees are often bought by turners, and the wood is used for yokes and other instruments of husbandry. In the northern countries of Europe, birch-wood is used for wheels of carriages. button Maker. THE BUTTON-MAKER. Buttons are articles of dress serving to fasten clothes tight about the body. There are several kinds of buttons ; some are made of gold and silver lace, others of mohair, silk, horse-hair, thread, me- tal, glassj &c. The wrought buttons in silk, mohair, thread, &c. are chiefly made at Maccleslield, and form the sta- ple commodity of the place. The use of them may be traced back nearly two hundred years ; they were formerly curiously wrought with the needle, and made a great figure in full-trimmed suits. The form of buttons vary continually, as fashion prompts the wearer or the workmen. Shirt buttons are made in considerable quantities at Axminster, in Devonshire. Metal buttons are principally made in Birmingham. The plate represents a man who makes, or stamps metal buttons only. The process is very simple after the metal comes out of the founder's hands. The pieces of metal are either cast or cut to the proper size, and then sent to the button-maker, who has dies or stamps according to the pattern wanted. The machine by which they are stamped is well exhibited in the plate. The man stands in a place lower than the floor, by which he is nearer on a level with the place on which his die stands. By means of a single pulley he raises a weight, to the lower part of which is fixed another die ; he lets the weight fall down on the metal, which effects his ob- D 5 58 Book of Trades, ject. After this operation they are to be shanked, which is performed by means of solder; they are then poUshed by women. At Birmingham this ma- nufacture is carried on upon a very large scale. The late John Taylor, Esq. was the inventor of gilt but- tons, and in his house buttons have been manufac- tured to the amount of 800/. per week. Besides those cast in a mould, there are great quantities of buttons made of thin plates. The plates are brought to a proper degree of thickness by the rolling-mill : they are then cut into round pieces of the size wanted. Each piece of metal thus cut is reduced to the form of a button by beat- ing it in several spherical cavities, beginning with the flattest cavity, and proceeding to the more spherical till the plate has all the relievo required ; and the more readily to manage so thin a plate, ten or a dozen of them are formed to the cavities at once. As soon as the inside is formed, an impression is given to the outside, by working it with an iron pun- cheon, in a kind of mould like minters' coins, en- graven indentedly, and fastened to a block or bench. The cavity of the mould in which the impression is to be made is of a diameter and depth suitable to the sort of button to be struck in it ; each kind re- quiring a particular mould. The plate thus prepared makes the upper part or shell of the button. The lower part is formed of another plate, made after the same manner, but flatter, and without any impression. To this is sol- dered a little eye, made of wire, for the button to be fastened by. The two plates are soldered together with a wood- en mould covered w^ith wax or rosin between, to render the button solid and firm : for the wax or other cement entering all the cavities formed by the relievo of the other side, sustains it, prevents its flattening, and preserves its design. Glass buttons are composed of glass of various The Button-maker, colours. The glass is kept in fusion, and the button nipt out of it while in that state, by a pair of iron moulds, like those for casting shot, adapted to the intended form of the button, the shank having been inserted in the mould, so that it may become imbed- ded in the glass when cool. In the year 1790, a patent was granted to Mr. Henry Clay of Birmingham, for a new method of manufacturing buttons of slate or slit stone. By 36 Geo. 3. c. 60, any person putting false marks on gilt buttons, erasing any marks except such as express the real quality, or any other words except real gilt, or plated, forfeits the buttons and incurs a penalty of 5/. for any quantity not exceeding 12 do- zen ; and if above, after the rate of 11. for every 12 dozen. The penalty however does not extend to those who mark the words double and treble gilt, provided in the case of double-gilt buttons, gold shall be equally spread upon their upper surface ex- clusively of their edges, in the proportion of 10 grains to the surface of a circle 12 inches in diameter, and in that of treble gilt, the gold shall amount to 15 grains in the same proportion. ^ The art of button-making, in its various branches, is encouraged and protected by divers acts of par- liament. It is unlawful to import foreign buttons ; and buttons made of, or covered v/ith cloth, cannot be worn, without subjecting the v/earer to very se- vere penalties, if any person choose to sue for the same. B6 THE CABINET-MAKER. The business of a Cabinet-Maker, and that of an Upholsterer are now so generally united toge- ther, that any observations on either of these branch- es may, with propriety, be comprehended under one general head. As Cabinet-making may be considered a superior kind of joinery, so much of its principles and prac- tice will be found under the article Carpenter, as to render it unnecessary to enter fully into the construc- tive art in the present article ; we shall, therefore, confine ourselves to such particulars as are peculiar to this branch, and endeavour to point out, for the direction of the student, some of the qualifications necessary for his excelling in it. The Cabinet-maker uses various kinds of wood for the formation or ornamenting of his goods, but his principal wood is Mahogany^ a species of cedar, growing in the warmest parts of America. It is found in abundance in the islands of Cuba, Jamaica, and Domingo, as well as the Bahamas : the trees grow to a very large size, and a great height. The first use to which mahogany was applied in England, was to make a box for holding candles. Dr. Gibbons, an eminent physician at the latter end of the seventeenth century, had a brother, a West- India captain, M^ho brought over some planks of this wood as ballast. As the Doctor was then building a house in King-street, Covent-garden, his brother thought they might be of service to him ; but the The Cabinet Maker. The Cabinet-maker. 61 carpenters finding the wood too hard for their tools, they were laid aside as useless. Soon after, Mrs. Gibbons wanting a candle-box, the Doctor called on his Cabinet-maker (WoUaston, of Long-Acre) to make him one of some wood that lay in the garden. The candle-box was made, and approved ; and the Doctor then insisted on having a bureau made of the same wood, which was accordingly done ; and the fine colour, polish, &c. were so pleasing, that his friends were invited to come and see it, amongst whom was the Duchess of Buckingham. Her Grace begged some of the wood of Dr. Gibbons, and Wollaston made her a bureau also ; on which the fame of the mahogany, and Mr. Wollaston, was raised, and things of this kind became general. All the arts of life have, no doubt, been the re- sult of a gradual and progressive improvement in civilization. In nothing is it exhibited more than in an Upholsterer's warehouse. What a difference is there between the necessary articles of furniture to be found in a cottage, and the elegantly furnished house of a merchant or a peer ! In the former, there is nothing but what is plain, useful, and almost essential to the convenience of life : in the latter, immense sums are sacrificed to magnificence and show. The cottager is con- tented with a deal table, an oaken chair, and a beech- en bedstead, with other articles equally plain and unexpensive. The wealthy possess sumptuous beds, inlaid tables, silk or damask chairs and curtains, sofas, and carpets of great value ; large looking- glasses, and brilliant lustres ; together with a variety 'of carved work and gilding. The furniture of a cottage or a small farm-house, will cost but a few guineas; that of a single room, in the wealthy parts of the metropolis, will be valued at from five hun- dred to a thousand pounds. The art of the Cabinet-maker differs from most other arts in many particulars. In the first place, 62 Book of Trades, the articles made by him, are not only very numer- ous, but there are not, even from the same shop, two articles of the same description, which do not vary in their form and manufacture ; and fashion is con- tinually changing the forms of almost all Cabinet- maker's articles, so that it must be obvious no rules can be laid down, as to the formation of particular articles of furniture ; and, indeed, were it practica- ble, it would be necessary that cabinet, like female fashions, should be published monthly, : in fact, this is, in some degree, done in a publication by Mr. Ackerman. The Cabinet-maker furnishes chairs, tables, chests of drawers, desks, scrutoires, bureaus, sofas, book- cases, and bedsteads, of all sorts of prices. But, in almost all places, the business of the Cabinet-ma- ker is united to that of the upholsterer ; and the furniture collected in one of their warehouses is worth from ten to thirty thousand pounds. Such warehouses may be seen in St. Paul's Church-yard, Bond-street, and other parts of London. As a first step, v/e should recommend to the stu- dent the practice of drawing from any good models, but more particularly from subjects connected with architecture, by which means he will gradually be- come more and more familiar v/ith the beautiful com- binations, so eminently conspicuous in the remains of ancient Greece and Rome. An acquaintance with perspective is no less useful than a knowledge of drawing : for it is sometimes necessary, not only to delineate the particular articles of furniture, but to shew the effect it is likely to produce, when placed in the apartment for which it is designed. As it is the fashion of the present day to resort to a number of contrivances for making one piece of furniture serve many purposes, a bed by night, and a chest of drawers by day," it becomes impor- tant, on this account, as well as on many others, that the Cabinet-maker should be acquainted with the The Cabinet-maker. 63 principles of mechanics, which will materially assist him in the formation of his works ; and enable him to outstrip those persons who act from no principles, or whose ignorance and illiterateness prevent them from a comprehension of them. All the remarks on the various tools, woods, &c. not belonging exclusively to this trade, will be found under the article Carpenter ; but there is a process or two of which we shall say a few words. Veneering is a kind of marquetry, or inlaying, by which several thin slices, or leaves of fine wood, of different kinds, are applied, and fastened on a ground of some common wood. The wood intended for veneering, is first savved out into slices or leaves, about a line (one-twelfth of an inch) thick ; and in order to saw them, the blocks, or planks, are placed upright in a kind of vice or sawing press; these slices are afterwards cut into slips, and fashioned divers ways according to the design proposed ; after the joints have been carefully adjusted, and the pieces brought dow^n to their proper thickness, with several planes adapted for. the purpose, they are glued down on a block or ground of dry wood, with good strong English glue. After the pieces have been thus joined and glued, the work, if small, is put into a press ; if large it is laid on a bench, cover- ed wdth a board, and pressed down with poles, or pieces of wood, the upper ends of which reach to the ceiling of the room, and the lower ends on the board. When the glue is quite dry, the veneered work is taken out of the press, and finished with proper planes, scrapers, rasps, &c. Marquetry differs from veneering in many parti- culars, and may be properly called painting in wood, as various imitations of nature are produced in this way. The art of inlaying is very ancient, and is supposed to have passed from east to west, among other branches of knowledge brought to the Romans from Asia : but it did not arrive at any tolerable 64 Book of Trades. perfection till the fifteenth century amongst the Itahans ; it seems, however, to have attained its greatest perfection in the seventeenth century in France. We have seen the representation of a tiger and other animals, done in this way, which might certainly be mistaken for an oil painting. The Cabinet-makei, represented in the plate, is one who makes chairs, tables, looking-glass frames, book-cases, &c. His chief tools are saws, axes, planes, chisels, files, gimlets, turn-screws, hammers, and other implements, wiiich are used in common by the Carpenter and Cabinet-maker. The work- man, represented in the plate, is in the act of making a looking-glass frame ; Le is putting some glue on one of the side pieces, in order to fix it in the hole that is prepared to receive it. The goodness and value of furniture depends on the fineness of the wood and other materials of which it is made, and on the neatness of the work- manship. A young maii brought up to this busi- ness, should possess a •ood share of ingenuity, and some talents for drawiou and designing, as we have before hinted, because much depends on fashion, and in pleasing the various tastes of the public. The Calico Printer. THE CALICO-PRINTER. Calicos were first brought to England from In* dia, in the year 1631, and derived their name from the province of Cahcut, where they were chiefly made or exported. Cahco is a sort of cloth resem- bhng linen, but is made of cotton. It was first manufactured in this country about the year 1772, or 1773. Various attempts had been made, previous to this time, to manufacture cloth with cotton warp or web, but owing to a variety of imperfections, they all proved unsuccessful; but the improvements which rapidly followed the introduction of machine spin- ning, soon remedied the defect. The manufacture of calicos was begun in Black- burn, in Lancashire, which has since become the great mart for calicos, and the chief source whence the printers of Lancashire, as well as those of Lon- don and Scotland, are supplied. The art of Cloth-printing, or Calico-printing, in other words, of dying in certain colours particular spots of the cloth, while the ground shall be of a dif- ferent colour or entirely white, afibrds, perhaps, the most direct and obvious illustration of the applica- tion of chemical principles. The first hint towards this branch of business was had from the Indian chintzes. Calico-printing was introduced into London in the year 1676, audit has since been encouraged by various acts of parlia- ment. / 66 Boole of Trades. In the East Indies they paint all their caUcos with the pencil, which they must do with great ex- pedition, as the price there is very low; but here the following method is adopted : the pattern is first drawn on paper the whole breadth of the cloth in- tended to be printed ; the workman then divides the pattern into several parts according to its size, each part being about 8 inches broad by 12 inches long; each distinct part or pattern thus divided is cut out upon wooden blocks ; the cloth to be printed is ex- tended upon a table, and the types being covered with the proper colours, are laid on after the man- ner represented in the plate, and the impression is left upon the cloth. The workman begins to lay on the types at one end of the piece, and so continues till the whole is finished ; great care must be taken that the patterns join with accuracy, and that there is no interstice or vacancy left. Cutting the pattern in wood being the most curious part of the process, we shall describe that particularly. The cutters in wood begin with pre- paring a plank or block of the proper size : beech, pear-tree, and box, are used for this purpose ; but the box-tree is the most fit for the business, as being the closest and least liable to be worm-eaten. As soon as the wood is cut into the proper size, and made very smooth, it is fit to receive the drav/ing or design. Sometimes ink is used ; and, to prevent its running, it is rubbed over with a mixture of white lead and water, and after it is dry it is rubbed off and polished. On this the design is drawn ; and those who can- not draw themselves make use of designs furnished by others whose profession is to draw patterns. The drawing marks out so much of the block as is to be spaced or left standing. The rest they cut off, and take away very curiously with the point of exceedingly sharp knives, or little chisels or gravers, The Calico-printer. 67 according to the bigness or delicacy of the work ; for they stand in need of no other instruments. Block-engraving differs from that on copper in this, that, in the former the impression comes from the prominent parts or strokes left uncut, whereas in the latter it comes from channels cut in the metal. Tlie manner of printing with wooden prints is easy and expeditious, if there be only two colours ; — as green and blue ; or black and a white ground, then the block requires only to be dipped in the printing-ink and impressed on the cloth. If more colours are used, then they are to be laid on w^ith a brush or brushes, and the impressions to be made as before with the hand. When the whole piece is printed, the cloth is washed and bleached, to take away any accidental stains it may have acquired in the operation ; it is then dried, calendered, and laid up in folds fit for the shop. The application of engraving on copper has given birth to a new and important branch of Calico- printing. It first introduced those machines, whose subsequent improvement has so much contributed to the perfection of the art, and which surpasses the ordinary mode of block-printing, not only in neat- ness, accuracy, and precision, but still more in the economy and art with which the labour is per- formed. These machines are of two kinds : — the flat press, and the rolling or cylinder press. The flat press, in its original form, was merely a modification, considerably enlarged, of the press for ornamental prints or engravings ; to which was added a contrivance for joining with accuracy the numerous and successive impressions necessary to cover a piece of cloth. It was confined at first to one colour, but later improvements have extended it 68 Book of Trades. to two or even three. The single-colour presses are, however, principally in use. In order to the proper reception of the different colours on the calico, it is necessary that it should be prepared by a previous process with what is usually called a mordant ; that which is principally used is the ascetate of argil. It is prepared by dis- solving 31bs. of alum, and lib. of ascetate of lead, in 81bs. of warm water. An exchange of the princi- ples of these salts takes place; the sulphuric acid of the alum combines with the lead, and the compound thus formed being insoluble in water, is precipitated: the ascetic acid remains united with the argil of the alum in solution ; there are added at the same time two ounces of the potash of com- merce, and two ounces of chalk ; the principal use of which appears to be to neutralize the excess of acid that might cut on the colouring matter and alter its shade. The calico is steeped in this liquor, and afterwards rinced and dried : it is then proper for the reception of the colours. Calico-printing is reckoned a very good business both for the master and his journeyman : the master, however, requires a large capital, a situation plenti- fully supplied with good and clear water, arid ex- tensive ground for bleaching and drying the cloths. He employs three sorts of hands ; the pattern- drawer, the cutters of the types, who are also the operators in printing, and a number of labourers to assist in washing. The pattern-drawer is paid ac- cording to the variety and value of the designs ; and the printer, who is able also to cut with ability and taste, can, in the summer-months, earn four or five guineas a week or more. A youth designed for this business ought to have a genius for drawing, a good eye, and a delicate hand. The business is not laborious, and the chief care is in the choice of a master who will do justice The Calico-Printer. 69 to his apprentice. Most Calico-printers have some pecuhar secrets in the preparation of their colours, which they ought to be bound to reveal to those whom they undertake to teach the art, since on the knowledge of this depends principally the success of the lad. THE CARPENTER. The art of the Carpenter is employed in framing and joining pieces of timber, and fitting them up in houses and other buildings, as well as in numerous other employments of a similar kind. It was in the use of wood in the building of his dwelling, that man first began to exercise his inge- nuity : and it is evident that he would soon endea- vour to find out tools for working it ; but the first were, of course, of a very rude construction. In the cabinets of the curious are still to be found some formed of hard stones. The most part of the savage nations of America, and of the Islands of the Pacific Ocean, were not acquainted with any other when Europeans first arrived amongst them. Joinery is, also, the art of vv^orking in wood, or of fitting various pieces of timber together, for the convenience or ornament of certain parts of edi- fices, and is called, by the French menuiseriey small-work." Both these arts are subservient to architecture, being employed in raising, roofing, flooring, and ornamenting buildings of all kinds. The rules in Carpentry are much the same as those of Joinery; the only difference is, that Carpentry includes the larger and rougher kinds of work, and that part which is most material to the construction and sta- bility of an edifice; while Joinery comprehends the interior finishing, and ornamental wood-work ; but The Carpenter, The Carpenter. 71 most of those who are brought up to the trade, are both Carpenters and Joiners. There are two kinds of Carpenters, the House- Carpenter and Ship-Carpenter. The wood which they principally make use of, is deal, oak, elm, and mahogany. Deal is the wood of the fir-tree, which is chiefly brought from Sweden, Norway, and other northern European countries. The most common species of fir-trees, are the silver-leafed and the pitch, Norway ^ or spruce-fir. The first of these grows in many parts of Germany, from whence turpentine is sent to England. The Norway fir produces the white deal, commonly used by Carpenters; from this pitch is also drawn ; whence it takes its second name of the pitch fir. There is also the red deal, which is also very much used where great durability is wanting, not having been deprived of its turpen- tine as the white deal has. Oak and elm are too well known in this country to need any description, as they both grow in abun- dance in various parts of England. English oak is proverbial for its strength and durability; it is chiefly used for ship-building, of which we shall speak hereafter. Mahogany has been mentioned before, under the article Cabinet-maker, to which we refer. There has latterly been planted in many parts of Great Britain, a species of pine called Larch-fir^ a deciduous tree, which grows very fast, and which promises, in time, to supersede, in part at least, the very great importations of fir timber from abroad. The Carpenter stands in need of a great variety of tools, such as s^aws, planes, chisels, hammers, hatchets, axes, awls, gimblets, &c. Common workmen are obliged to find their own tools, a set of which is worth from ten to twenty pounds, or even more. But for different kinds of mould- 72 Book of Trades. ings, for beads, and fancy work, the master Car- penter supplies his men with the necessary imple- ments. The practices in the art of Carpentry and Joinery are called planing, sawing, mortising, scribing, moulding, gluing, &c. The Carpenter, in the plate, is represented in the act of planing the edge of a board that is held to the side of the bench, by means of a screw, which is always attached to it. On his bench are a ham- mer, pincers, mallet, and two chisels ; a box, also, containing the Turkey stone, with which he shar- pens his tools : the shavings taken off from his plane, are scattered on his bench and on the ground. At the right-hand corner, stands some course boards, and his bag, in which he carries his tools : on the other side is the saw, upon the four-legged stool, which he uses for various purposes. Behind him is a new door, some other boards, a saw hang- ing against the wall, and a basket, in which he puts his smaller tools. He is represented preparing boards to lay upon the roof of a new house in the back-ground. The rafters are already in their places : the boards are to be laid next, in order to receive the slates. The art of sawing^ and the different kinds of saws made use of, will be described when we come to speak of the Sawyer. A mortise is a kind of joint in which a square hole of a certain depth is made, in the thickness of a piece of wood, in order to receive another piece, called a tenon. Scribing is a term made use of when one side of a piece of stuff is to be fitted to the side of some other piece, which is not regular, or not having straight-lined edges or surface. To make the two join close together, all the way, the Carpenter scribes it ; that is, he lays the piece of stuff to be scribed close to the other piece he intends to scribe The Carpenter. 73* to, and opens his compasses to the greatest distance the two pieces any where stand from each other ; then, bearing one of the legs against the side to be scribed to, with the other leg he draws a line on the stuff to be scribed. Thus he gets a line on the ir- regular piece, parallel to the edge of the regular one ; and if, by the saw or other instrument, the wood be cut exactly to the line, when the two pieces are put together they will make a neat joint. Planing consists in taking off, as occasion may require, all the rough parts from the surface and edges of wood, boards, &c. A plane consists of a piece of box-wood, or beech-wood, very smooth at the bottom, serving as a stock or shaft ; in the mid- dle of which is an aperture for a plate of iron, with a steel edge, or a very sharp chisel to pass. This edge is easily adjusted by a stroke or two of the hammer at one of the ends of the stock, on the iron itself, or the wedge, which is contrived to keep the plane-iron in its place. Planes have different names, according to their forms, sizes, and uses ; as the jack-plane^ which is about eighteen inches long, and is intended for the roughest kind of work. The long-plane is two feet in length ; it smooths the work after the rough stuff is taken off ; it is one of this kind which the Carpenter in the plate is re- presented as using, and it is well adapted for smooth- ing and making straight the edges of boards that are to be joined. The smoothing- plane, or hand-plane, is only six or eight inches long, and is used on almost all occa- sions. The rabbit-plane cuts the upper edge of a board straight or square down into the stuff, so that the edge of another board cut in the same manner, may join with it on the square. Besides these, there ^ve plowing-planes, moulding- planes, hollow-planes, snipe' s-bill planes y and a variety E 141 Book of Trades. of others, used more particularly by the Joiner in finishing his work. Glue is a very important article in the Carpenter's and Joiner's, as well as the Cabinet-maker s trade. It is made of the skins of animals, as oxen, sheep, &c. and the older the animal, the better is the glue. Whole skins are never used for this purpose, but only the shavings and parings made by tanners, cur- riers, fell-mongers, &c. These are boiled to the consistence of jelly, and poured into flat moulds to cool ; it is then cut into square pieces, and hung up to dry. A Ship-carpenter is an officer at sea, whose busi- ness consists in having things in readiness for keep- ing the vessel in which he is stationed in repair ; and attending to the stopping of leaks, to caulking^ careening, and the like ; which terms we shall ex- plain under the article Shipwright. He is to watch the timber of the vessel to see that it does not rot ; and in time of battle he is to have every thing pre- pared for repairing and stopping the breaches, made by the enemy's cannon. A journeyman Carpenter, when he works by time, receives from three shillings and sixpence, to four shillings and sixpence a day. Carpet Weaver* THE CARPET. WEAVER. » •■ Carpet, in the manufacture of cloth, is a species of wooUen-stufF, made of variegated colours, and used for covering the floors of rooms. The manufacture of Carpets we may reasonably conclude originated in Asia, from whence most of our knowledge of the manufacture of cloths of almost every descripiion appears to have been derived ; and to this day the finest and most expensive of the ornamental kinds are distinguished by the name of Turkey carpets. They are now, and have long been, manufactured both in France and Italy ; and those used in Great Britain of internal manufacture, are equal both in fabric and design to any imported. In England they are generally called Wilton Car- pets, from the county which is the chief seat of that and the other finer branches of the woollen manu- facture. Some manufactories are, and have long been established in Scotland^ of which Stirling and Kilmarnoch are the chief seats, but they are gene- rally confined to the coarser and low-priced kind. Carpeting possesses this peculiar property differ- ent from almost every other kind of cloth, that it contains two distinct webs woven at the same time, and firmly joined together by the operation : hence arises the common effect that on the two sides of a carpet, the form of the pattern is the same, but all the colours are reversed. The Carpet-loom is very well represented in the 76 Book of Trades, plate: it is placed perpendicularly, and consists principally of four pieces, two long planks or cheeks of vvood, and two thick rollers or beams. The planks are set upright, and the rollers across, the one at top, and the other at bottom, about a foot or more distant from the ground. They are sus- pended on the planks, and may be turned with bars, in each roller is a groove from one end to the other, in which the ends of the warp are so fastened that all the threads of it are kept perpendicular. The warp is divided, both before and behind, into parcels of ten threads, through the whole width of the piece. The Weaver works on the foreside. The design, or pattern, is traced in its proper colours on cartons, a kind of pasteboard, tied about the workman, who looks at it every moment, because every stitch is marked upon it, which it is his busi- ness to imitate. By these means he always knows what colours and shades he is to use, and how many stitches of the same colour. To accomplish this, he is assisted by squares, into which the whole de- sign is divided : each square is sub-divided into ten vertical lines, corresponding with the parcels of ten threads of the w^arp : and besides, each square is ruled with ten horizontal lines, crossing the vertical lines at right angles. The w^orkman having placed his spindles of thread near him, begins to work on the first horizontal line of one of the squares. The lines marked on the carton are not traced on the warp, because an iron wire, which is longer than the width of a parcel of ten threads, supplies the place of a cross line. This wire is managed by a crook at one end, at the workman's right hand ; towards the other end it is flatted into a sort of knife, with a back and edge, and grows wider to the point. The Weaver fixes his iron wire horizontally on the w^arp, by twisting some turns of a suitable thread of the woof round it, which passes forward and backward behind a fore-thread of the warp, The Carpet'iveaver. •77 and then behind the opposite thread, drawing them in their turn by their leishes. Afterwards he brings the woof-thread round the wire in order to begin again to thrust into the w^arp. He continues in this manner to cover the iron rod or wire, and to fill up a hne to the tenth thread of the warp. He is at hberty either to stop here, or to go on with the same cross hne in the next division, according as he passes the thread of the w^oof round the iron wire and into the warp, the threads of which he causes to cross one another at every instant ; w^hen he comes to the end of the hne, he takes care to strike in, or close again all the stitches with an iron reed, the teeth of which freely enter between the empty threads of the w^arp, and which is heavy enough tq strike in the woof he has used. This row of stitches is again closed and levelled, and in the same manner the Weaver proceeds ; then with his left hand he lays a strong pair of shears along the finished line, cuts off the loose hairs, and thus formes a row of tufts perfectly even, which, together v/ith those be- fore and after it, form the shag. Thus the work- man follows stitch for stitch, and colour for colour, the plan of his pattern, which he is attempting to imitate ; he paints magnificently without having tlie least notion of painting or drawing. The manufacture of carpets after the manner of Chaillot, %vas introduced into London in the year 1750, by two workmen, who left the manufactory in disgust, and came here to procure employment. They were first encouraged by Mr. Moore, who succeeded in estabhshing this important and useful manufacture; and who, in the year 1757, obtained a premium from the Society of Arts, for the best Carpet in imitation of the Turkey Carpets. We have Carpet manufactories, beside those before men- tioned, at Axminster, Kidderminster, Leeds, and many other places. Axminster Carpets are manufactured of any size ; E 3 78 Booh of Trades. they are woven in one entire piece, and several per- sons are employed at the same time in working the coloured patterns. Another sort of carpet in use is made of narrow sHps of list sewed together ; these of course are very inferior to those just described, but they employ many women and children. A considei^able trade in list carpets is carried on at the Orphan working school in the City Road, an institution that does honour to the liberality and public spirit of the Dis- senters in and near the metropolis. This is a good business for the masters and jour- neymen ; and now Carpets are become of such ge- neral use, a great number of people are employed in their manufacture. The Chemists THE CHEMIST. Chemistry is the science which treats of those events or changes in natural bodies, by which new bodies are composed, or compound ones divided : its principal object is to ascertain the principles or elements of which bodies are composed, and the latws by which the simple atoms of matter unite to- gether, and form compounds. Neither the origin nor primitive meaning of the word Chemistry is accurately known. That it was used by the Greeks, soon after the commencement of the Christian aera, is certain ; and many reasons coincide to render it probable, that it was of Egyp- tian origin. It is certain that the Chemistry of the ancients was the name of an art of some kind or another. Suidas, a Greek writer, mentions this particularly in his Lexicon. The honour of laying the foundation of the pre- sent science of Chemistry belongs to John Joachim Becher, who was born at Spires, in Germany, in 1645, where he became professor of medicine, and afterwards was appointed first physician to the elector of Mentz and Bavaria; but he ended his days in England. His writings testify with what success he applied himself to the study of this im- portant branch of natural philosophy. To name the illustrious men who laboured in this science during the eighteenth century, would require^vo- lume. Priestley, Scheele, J^iacquer, Black, Caven- dish, and Lavoisier, are amongst the most eminent, ■A 80 Book of Trades. some of whom have only within a few years past paid the debt of nature. Of Hving Chemists, Sir Humphry Davy, and Mr. Brande, the present pro- fessor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution, are eminently conspicuous. Formerly the preparations of drugs were divided into two classes, termed chemical and galenical; idle distinctions, which have nearly disappeared before the light which modern Chemistry has spread abroad. A more correct and just classification has obtained both in the science itself, and in the terms and names of the several substances, in consequence of the assiduity with which chemical investigation has been followed in many of the nations of Europe, The hidden qualities, or supposed qualities of mat- ter, are now no longer taken for granted ; all must be weighed in the balance of experiment, and sub- mitted to the severe test of philosophical truth : it is utterly impossible to say where our experiments may end. Water, for a long time supposed to be a simple body, is now known to be a compound one ; the great powers which have been latterly ac- quired by a modified operation of electricity, called the Galvanic apparatus, have unfolded to us results and changes as extraordinary as unexpected, and which lead us not less to wonder at the inhnite va- riety of the powers abounding in nature, than at the ingenuity and perseverance of man ; we may well conclude, therefore, that much yet remains to ^ be explored : a deep mine for the future active ge- nius of research. It is scarcely possible to name a thing in the na- tural world, to which Chemistry does not either directly or indirectly, apply. Heat, light, air, elec- tricity, the phenomena of the seasons, the differ- ent climates, the sea, mountains, volcanoes, mines, have all an intimate connexion with this the first of all sciences. The boihng of a potato, the roast- ing of a piece of beef, the baking of a pie, or of a The Chemist. 81 loaf of breads are equally objects of the science of Chemistry. But, in a more confined sense, the Chemist is employed in the composition and decom- position of medicines designed for the cure or alle- viation of disease : and in the manufacture of a variety of articles used in the arts. The Chemist of trade might be defined the maker of medicines; the Druggist, the seller of them. In London, and many other places, a Chemist and Druggist are frequently combined in the same per- son, and in other instances, the trade of a Chemist is divided into a variety of branches. Some pre^- pare compositions of mercury ; others refine salt? petre ; some distil essential oils ; and others, as the Apothecaries' Company, prepare the greatest part of the compositions themselves : some prepare the sulphuric acid, the nitric acid, the muriatic acid, and a few neutral salts only, in a very large way ; whilst others distil oil of turpentine, make pitch, lamp-black, &c. The whole world is ransacked for the supply of the Chemist's elaboratory, and the Druggist's shop. The Elaboratory is a room provided with proper conveniences for carrying on all the operations which the Chemist might choose, or have occasion for : it is generally constructed with an open chim- ney, in such a way, that if any unexpected explo- sion should take place, the ignited materials might find a ready escape. It is furnished also with suit- able benches, mortars, a sand heat, a variety of glass vessels, consisting of retorts, matrasses, fun- nels, &c. &c. and a copper alembic, or still, for the purpose of procuring a variety of distilled waters, oils, &c. and a circular furnace for the purpose of boiling, melting, and other processes, requiring the immediate contact of fire. But, indeed, from the great variety of operations in Chemistry, we scarcely find two elaboratories alike, either in their struc- ture, or in the different vessels which they contain. 82 Book of Trades. The light, however, in them all, is most desirable when thrown down from above ; and, of course, an elaboratory ought not to have any room, loft, or building over it. The Chemist and Druggist usually makes some of his articles, even if he be only a retailer: he also sells numerous quack medicines, and frequently makes many of these when the patents have ex- pired, or if the nostrums be known : but this is a branch of his trade by no means so reputable as could be wished, although it generally brings in a good profit, and in stamps, produces a considerable revenue to government. To sell these an annual licence must be taken out from the Stamp-Office, and a stamp of a certain value, in proportion to the value of the article sold, must be affixed to every individual phial, box, pot, or other package or in» closure. The Chemist and Druggist generally, also, dis- penses Physicians' prescriptions, and by a late Act of Parliament, he is privileged so to do, without being obliged to undergo an examination at Apo- thecaries' Hall. We wish that it was in our power to speak of this trade as one in which the composition of medi- cines was uniformly correct, and according to the directions of the London Pharmacopceia ; but we are sorry to say, that tales are told, which give us great reason to fear, that many unworthy persons have obtruded themselves into this respectable body ; and that too much of system pervades the trade generally, for it to be quite free from that sophistication which, in medicine, is, above all things, so much to be deprecated. Except this drawback, the preparation and sale of medicines is a very respectable line of business, and one in which, with a tolerable share of judg- ment, great fortunes have been made. We believe, however, that the impressions of its profitableness The Chemist. 83 have directed more competitors into it than can now find room ; the profits are, in consequence, a good deal lessened, and, perhaps, its respectability impaired. The Drug«trade, as well as the Chemist's, in the large way, is a good deal sub-divided; there are Drug merchants : those who import Drugs from abroad, and sell them to wholesale Druggists, who sell them again to the retailer. Some of these mer- chants import and sell only particular articles. A lad who is designed for this trade will cer- tainly best succeed in it if he is previously ac* quainted with the rudiments of Latin at least ; and has some knowledge of Botany, and the Materia Medica. It is a trade of all others the most inti- mately connected with science. A premium of one hundred guineas is sometimes given with an appren- tice. The stock in trade of a retail Chemist and Druggist may amount to a few hundred pounds. The stock of a Chemist and Druggist, in the whole- sale trade, sometimes to many thousands. The plate represents the interior of a Chemist's jelaboratory. On the left is an alembic made of copper, with the worm-tub by its side. On the right is a sand heat, with digesting bottles, retorts, receivers, &c. &c. In the middle is the furnace, where all the common operations are performed. The light is thrown from above, that being the best w^ay in which the progress of the processes can be seen. £ 6 THE COACH-MAKER. The Coach-Maker makes coaches, chaises of all kinds, and other vehicles of the more elegant kind for travelling. The use of coaches has been carried by many writers much higher than is authorized by facts. Vehicles, approaching them in form, though under a variety of designations, have certainly been used at different times in different countries. Coaches, however, were not known in Europe till the be- ginning of the sixteenth century, when they were used only by women of the first rank, it being con- sidered disgraceful for men to ride in them. At that period, in Germany, when the electors and princes did not wish to be present at the meetings of the states, they excused themselves by informing the emperor that their health would not permit them to ride on horseback. The oldest carriages used by the ladies in En- gland, were known under the now-forgotten name of whirlicotes* We are expressly informed by Stow, that in 1555, Walter Ripon made a coach for the Earl of Rut- land, ''which was the first that was ever used in England^ In his larger Chronicle, however, he states, that coaches were brought more generally into fashion by one William Boonen, a Dutchman, in 1564, who was coachman to the Queen. It was not till the beginning of the seventeenth century, that a coach-box was added to the body. In 1605, Qoach Maker, The Coach-Maker. 83 [ coaches began to be in general use among the nobility and gentry in London. Hackney -coaches began to ply in London streets in 1625, when twenty only was the number allowed ; in ten years, their numbers multiplied so much that their increase I was restrained by order of Council. In 1637, fifty coaches were allowed to be licensed by the Master of the horse. In 165^^ they were increased to 200. In 1661 to 500. In 1691 to 700. Afterwards, to 800. In 1771 to 1000: and since to 1100. Stage-Coaches were not in general use till the beginning of the eighteenth century. Post-Chaises were introduced by Mr. TuU, son of the well- known writer on husbandry. The celebrated Duke of Buckingham was the first person who rode in a coach with six horses. To ridicule this new pomp the Earl of Northumber=» land put eight horses to his carriage. The fashions with regard to the form and orna-* ment of coaches and other carriages for pleasure, are perpetually changing. The chief kinds now in use are tlie close coach and chariot; the landau, which can lower its roof and part of its sides, like the head of a phaeton ; the barouche, or open sum- mer carriage ; the chariot intended only for two or three persons ; the landaulet, or chariot, whose head folds back ; the phaeton and caravan, which have only a head and no windov/s, with a leathern apron arising from the foot-board to the waist : the post-chaise is a sort of chariot without a box. There is also the berlin, which, and the landau, take their names from the places at which they were first made. Coaches are also distinguished according to the uses for which they are designed : thus we have travelling-coaches, stage-coaches, hackney-coaches, &c. these all run on four wheels. Of the two- wheeled vehicles there is the curricle, drawn by two horses ; the gig, chaise, or whiskey, having one horse only. When a gig has two horses, one pre- 86 Book of Trades. ceding the other in harness, the machine and its horses together are denominated a Tandem, a Latin word, signifying at length. Coaches consist of two principal parts, the body and the carriage. The body is that part which is intended for the passengers ; the carriage is that which sustains the body, and to which the wheels that give motion to the whole machine are fas- tened. The body of the coach is built chiefly with ash, on account of its great toughness, and its not being liable to snap by jerking; but the pannels are gene- rally made of mahogany ; the upper parts are covered with well-dressed and highly-varnished leather. The inside of a coach is lined with wool- len cloth, and stuffed with horse hair. Coaches, however, made in a very high style, are lined with silk, sometimes with velvet ; and not unfrequently with exceedingly fine and beautiful leather. The carriage consists, principally, of two pair of wheels, with axle-trees and a perch. The perch is that long pole which is fastened to the middle of the hind axle-tree, and passes be- tween the fore axle and its bolster, being secured by the pole-pin, so as to move about it, and con- necting the fore and hind wheels together. It is plain that in turning a carriage of this construction, the larger the wheel the sooner it will strike against the perch : on account of the axle being under the perch ; and to accommodate some other contrivan^ ces in the lower part of the carriage, the fore- wheels are usually made smaller than the hind ones. Coaches on the most elegant construction are made in London, whence they are exported to the Continent, to the East-Indies, and America : indeed, they are made more elegant for the East-Indies than those used in this country. Modern European coaches were unknown in The Coach-makei . 87 China, till Lord Macartney's embassy to that em- pire. With his Lordship two of Hatchett s most splendid carriages were sent as presents to the Em- peror. These puzzled the Chinese more than any of the other presents. Nothing of the kind had ever been seen at Pekin ; and the disputes among themselves as to the part intended for the seat of the Emperor were whimsical enough. The ham- mer-cloth that covered the box of the winter-car- riage had a smart edging, and was ornamented with festoons of roses. Its splendid appearance and elevated situation, determined it at once, in the opinion of the majority, to be the Emperor's seat ; but a difficulty arose how to appropriate the inside of the carriage. They examined the windows, the blinds, and the screens ; and at last, concluded that it could be for nobody but his ladies. An old eunuch sought particularly for information: and when he learned that the fine elevated box was to be the seat of the man who managed the horses, and that the Emperor's place was within, he asked, with a sneer, if it could be supposed that the Em- peror would suffer any man to sit higher than hinl- self, and to turn his back towards him? He washed the coach-box to be removed and placed behind the body of the carriage. The business of a Coach-Maker is divided into several branches; the wages are in proportion to the nicety of the work ; thus the body-makers in general have from two to three pounds per week : the carriage-makers, betw^een one and two pounds : the trimmers about two guineas : the painters from twenty to thirty shillings : the body painters about forty shillings : the herald painters from three to four pounds : the smiths about thirty shillings. Hackney-coaches and coachmen are subject to strict regulations; they are stationed at certain stands in the streets of London, and other large cities; for the convenience of passengers, and are 88 Book of Trades. hired at fixed rates. The coachmen are hable to be punished for any offences, such as insults to their passengers, or for over charges. Coach-Makers are now obhged to take out an annual license, and to render an account of the number of carriages they sell, and to whom sold. THE COMB-MAKER. The comb is a well-known instrument, made of horn, ivory, tortoise-shell, box, or holly-wood, and is used for separating, adjusting, cleansing, and orna- menting the hair. The commoner sorts of combs iare generally made of the horns of bullocks', or of elephants' and sea-horses' teeth ; some are made of r tortoise-shell, and others of box, holly, and other hard woods. The savages of the islands in the Pacific Ocean, make Combs of a kind of wood which are shaped like a fan_, and which prove that the use of the comb must have been very early introduced amongst man- kind. Bullocks' horns are thus prepared in order to manufacture combs : the tips are first sawn off*; they are then held in the flame of a wood fire ; this is called roasting, by which they become nearly as soft as leather. While in that state, they are split open on one side, and pressed in a machine between two iron plates : they are then plunged into a trough of water, from which they come out hard and flat. After the horn is cut to the intended size, three or four pieces are laid upon a pair of tongs over a fire of joiners' shavings to soften them ; they are turned many times, and when sufficiently soft are put into a vice, and screwed tight; to complete the flattening, they are suffered to remain a short time until they become perfectly flat and hard again ; they are then given to a man who shaves, planes^ ot 90 Book of Trades. scrapes off the rough parts, with a knife having two handles, similar to those used by coopers, which he works from him across the grain of the horn from one end of the intended comb to the other; when both sides are perfectly smooth it is delivered to the person who cuts the teeth; he fastens it by that part meant for the back, into an instrument for hold* ing it, called a clam," by wedges ; the clam has a long handle, which the workman places under him as he sits : by this mean he steadies the object of his work, as both hands are to be employed in the operation. The cutting of the teeth is commenced by a double saw, each blade of which is like the small one with which joiners and cabinet-makers cut their fine work ; with this he forms the teeth, but as this instrument leaves the work square and rough in the inside edge of each tooth, it is followed by another, about the size and shape of a case knife, having teeth like a file on each flat side ; after this, two others of the same shape, but each finer cut than the other, follow ; one stroke on each side of the comb is then given by a rasping tool, in which, also, a little attention is used, to give the ends of the teeth a small bevel or angle ; this tool is used to take oiF any roughness that may remain on the sides of the teeth ; it is now delivered to another opera- tor who polishes it with rotten stone and oil, apply- ing them with a piece of buflp leather ; after which the article is ready for sale. The process used for making ivory combs is nearly the same as that already described, except that the ivory is first sawed into thin slices. The best ivory comes from the Islands of Ceylon and Achen, in the East Indies ; this has the property of never turning yellow ; of course the ivory from these places is much dearer than that brought from other parts. Having described the usual method of making combs, it is right to inform the reader, that about ten years ago, Mr. Bundy, of Camden-Town, ob'» \ The Comb-maker. 91 tained a patent for cutting combs by means of machinery. It will be thought a very singular cir- cumstance, that before this period no method was practised in this country for cutting the teeth of combs, but that in which a pair of saws, rudely fastened in a wooden back, was directed by the human hand, with these implements, however, it is that the very delicate, superfine ivory combs, containing from fifty to nxty teeth in an inch, are manufactured. By Mr. feundy's machine the business of comb- making is greatly expedited ; the teeth of two combs (inay be cut in about three minutes. The combs are afterwards pointed, by applying them to an arbor or axis, clothed with cutters, having chamfered edges and teeth. Tortoise-shell combs are very much used : and there are methods of staining horn so as to imitate tortoise-shell, of which the following is one : the horn to be dyed must first be pressed into a flat form, and then spread over with a paste made of two parts of quick lime and one of litharge, brought into a proper consistence with soap-ley. This paste must be put over all the parts of the horn, except such as are proper to be left transparent to give it a nearer resemblance to tortoise-shell. The horn must remain in this state till the paste is quite dry, when it is to be brushed off. It requires taste and judgment to dispose the paste in such a manner as to form a variety of transparent parts, of different magnitudes and figures to look like nature. Some parts should also be semi-transparent ; which may be made by mixing whiting with a part of the paste to weaken its operation in particular places ; by this means, spots of reddish brown will be produced, so as greatly to increase the beauty of the work. Horn thus dyed is manufactured into combs, and these are frequently sold for real tortoise-shell. Another method of imitating tortoise-shell in horn, is to take of nitrous acid two ounces, of fine silver 92 Book of Trades. one drachm : let the silver be dissolved, and having spotted or marked your horn with v/ax, strike the solution over it ; let it dry of itself, and the horn will be in those places which are free from wax, of a brown or black colour. A green dye may be given to ivory by steeping it in nitrous acid, tinged with copper or verdigris ; or in two parts of verdigris and one of sal ammoniac, ground well together with strong white v/ine vinegar poured on them ; and by converting the nitrous acid into the oxygenated muriatic acid ( aqua regia J ; i. e . by dissolving a fourth part of its weight of sal ammo- niac in it, ivory may be stained of a fine purple colour. Ivory, bone, horn, and other substances adapted to the manufacture of combs, may be stained yellow, by boiling them in a solution of one pound of alum in two quarts of water, and afterwards boiling them in a decoction of turmeric root. Ivory, &c. may be stained blue by first staining it green, and then dip- ping it in a solution of pearl-ashes made strong and boiling hot. It may be done also by boiling in a tincture of indigo prepared by the dyers, and after- wards in a solution made with three ounces of cream of tartar dissolved in a quart of water. Combs are not only made for the purpose of cleaning hair but for ornament ; they are sometimes set with brilliant stones^ pearls, and even diamonds ; some again, are studded with cut steel; these are of different shapes, and are used to fasten up the hair w^hen ladies dress without caps. Of course, combs may be had of all prices,^ from the value of a few pence to almost any sum. Journeymen Comb-makers will earn a guinea ox* thirty shillings a week. Horn from which combs are generally made, when very thin becomes transparent, and has been used instead of glass for windows. When heated it may be bent to any shape, and wrought into trinkets of all forms. Tortoise-shell, upon being analysed^ \% The Comb-maker. 93 found to consist of very thin membranes laid over each other, and is in its nature very Uke the nails that defend the human toes and fingers. The Comb-maker represented in the plate, is cut- ting the teeth of a comb : on his left hand is a bench with combs already finished ; on the ground are the horns from which he manufactures them ; and in the right hand corner is a heap of shavings. THE CONFECTIONER, A Confectioner is one who makes sweetmeats, preserves of various kinds, jellies, jams, gingerbread, &c. and is generally combined with the Pastry-cook, who makes tarts, cheese-cakes, pies, &c. Confects, or confits, is a denomination given to fruits, flowers, herbs, roots, and juices, wlien boiled and prepared with sugar or honey to keep them, or to render them more agreeable to the taste. The ancients only confected with honey ; at pre- sent sugar is moi e frequently used. Confits, half sugared, are those only covered with a little sugar, to leave more of the natural taste of the fruit. The making of gingerbread, we are told, is an art of the highest antiquity, and that its use has come to us from Asia. We read, in fact, that a bread sweetened with honey was made at Rhodes, of such an agreeable taste, that it could be eaten with plea- sure after the most sumptuous feasts. The Greeks called this bread melilates : thence it came into Europe, and descending to our own times, has ob- tained the name of gingerbread. Confects are reduced to eight kinds, viz. liquid confects, marmalades, jellies, pastes, dry confects, conserves, candies, and sugar-plums, sometimes called comfits. Liquid confects are those whose fruits, either whole, in pieces, in seeds, or in clusters, are con- fected in a fluid, transparent syrup, which takes its colour and name from that of the fruit boiled in it. 5 T/ie Confectioner, The Confectioner. 95 A good deal of art is necessary in preparing these well ; if they be too little sugared, they will ferment and spoil, and if too much, they will candy. The most esteemed of the liquid confects, are plums, es- pecially those called mirabels, barberries, quinces, apricots, cherries, orange-flowers, little green citrons from Madeira, green cassia from the Levant, myro- balans, ginger, cloves, &:c. Marmalades are a kind of pastes, almost liquid, made of the pulp of fruits or flowers that have some consistence ; such as apricots, apples, pears, plums, quinces, oranges, and ginger. Marmalade of ginger is brought from the Indies by way of Holland. It is esteemed good to revive the natural heat in aged persons. Jellies are juices of several fruits, wherein sugar has been dissolved, and the whole, by boiling, re^ duced into a pretty thick consistence, so as, upon cooling, to resemble a thin transparent glue or size. Jellies are made of various kinds of fruits, especially gooseberries, currants, apples, and quinces : there ^are other jellies, made of flesh, fish, hartshorn, &c. but they are not kept long, being very subject to corrupt. Pastes are a kind of marmalades, thickened to that degree, by a proper boiling, as to assume any form when put into little moulds, and dried in an oven. The most in use are gooseberries, quinces, apples, plums, pears, and orange-flowers ; those of pistachoes are the most esteemed ; those of ginger are brought from the Indies. Dry confects are those whose fruits, after having been boiled in the syrup, are taken out again, drained, and put to dry in an oven. These are made of so many kinds of fruit, that it would be trouble- some to mention them all : the most considerable arei citron, lemon, and orange-peel ; plums, pears, cher- ries, and apricots. Conserves are a kind of dry confects, made with 96 Book of Trades. sugar-pastes of flowers or fruits, &c. The most usual amongst them, are those of roses, mallows, rosemary, of hips, of orange-peel, orange-flowers^ violets, jessamine, pistachoes, citrons, and sloes. ' Gaudies are, ordinarily, entire fruits, candied over with sugar having been boiled in the syrup, which renders them like little rocks crystallized, of various figures and colours, according to the fruits enclosed in them. The best candies are brought from Italy. Sugar -plums, or comfits, are a kind of little dry confects, made of small fruits or seeds, little pieces of bark, as cinnamon or cassia, or odoriferous and aromatic roots, &c. incrusted, and covered over with a very hard sugar, ordinarily white, but sometimes of other colours. Of these there are various kinds, distinguished by various names ; some are made of raspberries, others of barberries, melon seeds, pis- tachoes, filberts, almonds, cinnamon, cassia, orange- peel, coriander, aniseed, carraways, &;c. Ice-cream is, also, an article to be found in the Confectioner's shop ; who generally lays in, during the winter, a competent supply of ice, preserved in a proper receptacle, to furnish his customers with this agreeable treat in the summer months. The Confectioners of London are famous for the elegance and size of their Twelfth-Day cakes : for some days previously to this period, their shops are decorated with a great variety of them, made of dif- ferent shapes, and with various devices upon them : some weigh many hundred pounds. There are various forms and preparations of gin-^ gerbread: we shall content ourselves with giving the following recipe, which is well recommended. Into a pound of almonds, blanched and pounded, grate a penny white loaf; sift and beat them together; to the mixture add an ounce of ginger scraped fine, and of liquorice and aniseed, in powder, of each a quarter of an ounce ; pour in two or three spoonfuls of rose water, and make the whole into a paste with The Confectioner . 97 half a pound of sugar : mould and roll it ; print it, and dry it in a stove. Some make gingerbread of treacle, citron, lemon, and orange-peel, with candied ginger, coriander, and carraway seeds, mixed up with as much flour as will make it into a paste. The plate represents the Confectioner's shop, with jellies, sugar-plums, jams, &c. THE COOPER- A Cooper manufactures casks, tubs, pails, and various other articles in domestic concerns, as well as vessels for carrying and transporting all kinds of liquids, and many dry wares. The art of the Cooper is very ancient, and appears to have soon arrived to the degree of perfection in which it now is. The operations in this trade are referred to two thousand years ago by the Roman writers on rural economy. Notwithstanding which, it is still unknown in some countries ; for in those where wood is scarce, they carry wine in skins daubed over with a mixture of pitch and tar. The custom of keeping wine in earthen vessels is still in use in some of the southern parts of Europe. Pliny gives to* the Piedmontese the merit of having first made use of casks : in his time they were daubed with pitch. The art of coopering has enabled man to possess and retain the richest viands and liquors of foreign climes. It promotes and facilitates the export and import of the produce of distant countries, which have enriched the merchant, supplied the wants and luxuries of the people, enriched the revenues, and given spirit to navigation. It is impossible, in re- flecting on this trade, not to feel that it occupies a much greater space in our existence than it at first appears to do. The Cooper principally employs oak in the manu- facture of his different articles, a great part of which The Cooper, The Cooper. 99 comes from America : but he also uses, occasionally, other woods, as deal and beech. The oak is usually imported, cut up into narrow pieces, called staves ; for tubs, pails, &c. the bottoms of which are less than the tops, the staves are wider at the top than they are at the bottom. After the staves are dressed, and ready to be arranged, the Cooper, without at- tempting any great nicety in sloping or beveling them, so that the whole surface of the edge may touch in every point, brings them into contact only at the inner surface, and then, by driving the hoops tight, he can make a closer joint than could be done by sloping the staves from the outer to the inner side. These staves are kept together by means of hoops, which are made of hazel and ash ; but some articles require iron hoops. To make them hold water, or other liquids, the Cooper sometimes places between each staves from top to bottom, split flags, which swell with moisture, and effectually prevent the vessel from leaking : but this is more commonly done in repairing old casks: if the new work be properly conducted there is no necessity for the use of flags. The trade in London is divided into several branches, and the persons carrying it on, as well as the journeymen, confine themselves to the different branches respectively. They are designated first by Butt-Coopers, whose employ consists in making all kinds of casks for breweries, and the puncheons and hogsheads for distilleries. The Dry-Cooper finds his employment in manu- facturing hogsheads and other casks for the contain- ing of every kind of dry produce ; the leading feature of the consumption in his line is hogsheads for sugar. The employ of the White-Cooper comes home to every house-keeper : he makes all domestic utensils, such as are used in private brewing, washing, dairies, &c. f2 IGO Book of Trades, The Wine-Cooper is a person employed in draw* ing ofl', bottling, and packing wine, spirits, or malt liquor. In London many persons follow this busi- ness only ; it is common for persons of the first con- sequence to employ the Wine-Cooper to take charge of their wines. The Cooper derives large profit, and great part of his employment, from the West-India trade. The puncheons and hogsheads are used in the voyage out to the Islands for packing coarse goods, as coarse woolen cloaths, coarse hats, &c. whence those vessels return filled with rum and sugar. The tools required by the Cooper are numerous, some of which are peculiar to his art ; but most of them are common both to him and the Carpenter. In the plate we see the Cooper busily employed in putting together a hogshead. In his left hand he holds a flat piece of wood, which he lays on the edge of the hoop v/hile he strikes it with the hammer in ins right hand. To make the hoops stick, he takes the precaution to chalk the staves before he begins this part of the operation. The tops and bottoms he puts together by means of wooden i)egs. Around the w all of the shop, and on the floor, we see the iron and wooden hoops, and Vcirious tools, such as saws, axes, spoke-shaves, stocks, and bits, adzes, augers, &c. &c. The structure and uses of the saw and the axe are too welhknown to stand in need of description. Spoke-shaves are of different kinds ; they are in- tended for uses similar to those for which the Car- penter adapts his pianos : two of them are repre- sented in the plate ; one hangs by a handle not far from the right hand of the Cooper, and tlie other lies on the large block of wood, which is useful for various purposes. The stock and hit make but one instrument; it liangs over the left shoulder of the Cooper. The rsloclc is the handle, and the bit is a sort of piercer, 1 The Cooper. 101 that fits into the bottom of the stock : bits of various sorts are adapted to the same stock, of course the bit is always moveable, and may be instantly re- placed to one of a different bore. An adze is a cutting tool of the axe kind, having its blade made very thin and arching: it is xised chiefly for taking ofT thin chips, and for cutting the hollow sides of boards, &c. Augers are used for boring large holes : they are a kind of large gimblet, consisting of a wooden handle and an iron blade, which is terminated with a steel bit. One of these instruments hangs between the savv% and stock and bit, but above them ; and two different kinds are near the right hand of the Cooper. A draiving-hiife is also a tool of the utmost im- portance in this trade ; it is sometimes straight and sometimes bent, in order to give the staves that cir- cular form which they are designed to have in a cask, or other round vessel : this tool, and the spoke- shave, with the Cooper almost supersede the neces- sity of the plane. There is one other little tool peculiar to the Cooper, called a drift, which he uses for the purpose of striking on, to drive down the hoops. It is made of iron, for driving down iron hoops, and of some hard wood for wooden hoops : without this little tool the operation of straining the hoops could not be per- formed. The trade of the Cooper was formerly among the cries of London; any work for the Cooper?'* is now heard, though rarely, in some parts of the country. A traveUing Cooper carries with him a few hoops of different sizes, some of iron, rivets, and wooden pegs ; his hammer, adze, drift, and stock and bit. With these few^ instruments he can repair all washing and brewing utensils, besides the churns and wooden vessels made use of in dairies. An in- genious workman will, in his peregrinations, readily F 3 102 Book of Trades. perform various jobs which belong to the carpenter, in villages which are too small to support a person of that trade. A journeyman Cooper will earn from three to five shillings per day. Every custom-house and excise-office has an officer called the Kings-Cooper; and every large ship has a Cooper on board, whose business is to look after all the casks intended for liquids. THE COPPER.PLATE PRINTER. The Copper-plate Printer is a person who transfers portraits, landscapes, and a variety of other pictures and v/riting, from engravings on copper to paper, by a very ingenious process, of which v/e are now to speak. This art is said to have been as ancient as the year 1450, and to owe its origin to Finguerra, a Florentine goldsmith, who accidentally pouring some melted brimstone on an engraved plate, found the exact impression of the engraving left in the cold brimstone, marked with black taken out of the strokes by the liquid sulphur : upon this he attempt- ed to do the same on silver plates with wet paper, by rolling it smoothly with a roller ; and this suc- ceeded. But this art was not used in England till the reign of King James I. when it was brought from Antwerp by Speed. 1 The principal things requisite in this business, are the ink, and a press, called a rolling-press. The ink used for Copper-plate printing is a com- position made of stones of peaches and apricots, the bones of sheep, and ivory, all well burnt; and, as the best which is used in this business comes from Frankfort on the Main, it is known by the name of Frankfort-black, It comes over in cakes, and being mixed with nut-oil, that has been well boiled, it is ground by the printer on a marble, after the same manner as painters do their colours : a palette knife is of course used in this part of the business. F 4 104 Book of Trades. The rolling-press may be distinguished into tw© parts, the body and the carriage ; the body consists of two cheeks or upright posts, joined at top and bottom by cross pieces, and placed perpendicularly on a wooden stand or foot, which sustains the whole press. From this foot rise four other perpendicular pieces, joined also by cross ones ; this may be con- sidered as the carriage, because it serves to sustain a smooth even plank, upon which the engraved plate is placed. Into the cheeks are inserted two w^ooden cylin- ders, the ends of which being much smaller than the bodies, are called trunnions^ and turn in the cheeks between two pieces of wood, in form of half-moons, lined with polished iron to prevent friction. The spaces left vacant by the trunnion are filled with paste-board or paper, that they may be raised or lowered at discretion ; so as only to leave the space between them necessary for the carriage of the plank, loaded with the plate, paper, and cloths, which consist of swan-skin and a piece of broad- cloth. To one of the trunnions of the upper roller is fastened a cross, consisting of two levers, the arms of w^hich give a motion to the upper roller, and that again to the under one, so that the plank is drawn by this means backwards and forwards. The press and the ink being prepared, the printer takes a small quantity of this ink on a rubber made of linen rags, with which he smears the whole face of the plate as i^ lies on a grate over a small fire made of old coal, (the grate, linen rubber, &c. are represented in the left hand side of the engraving, which accompanies this description.) The plate being sufficiently inked, the printer takes it to a part of the bench called the jigger, and wipes it first with a rag, then wath the hand, over which he has rubbed a piece of whiting. The great The Copper-plate Printer. 105 art consists in wiping the plate perfectly clean, with- out taking the ink out of the engraving. The plate thus prepared, is laid on the plank of the press ; over the plate is spread the paper, which has been previously moistened ; and the arms of the cross are now to be pulled, and by that means the plate, with its furniture, is carried between the rollers, over which are the swan-skin and broad-cloth : these pinching very strongly, yet equall}^, in every part, force the moistened paper into the strokes of the engraving, whence it brings away the ink. Some w^orks require to be passed through the press twice, and once is sufficient for others, accord- ing as the graving is more or less deep, or as the print is required to be of a lighter or darker shade. After the prints are taken oft', the plate is rubbed over with olive oil to prevent its rusting, and set by against a new impression. If the strokes get filled within, and hardened in the course of working, the plates are boiled in strong ley before the oil is ap- plied. It is said that earl Stanhope has introduced such improvements in the art of engraving, as will enable the artist to take off*, from a well-engraved plate, at least ten thousand impressions. Thus the paintings of the greatest masters are multiplied to a boundless extent ; and the lovers of the polite arts, in every part of the globe, are ena- bled to enjoy those advantages from which their situations seem to have deprived them. A journeyman Copper-plate printer, will earn forty shillings a week. And from a strongly engrav- ed plate, three or four thousand good impressions may be taken ; and even then the plate may be re- paired, and fitted up for other editions. THE CORK-CUTTERe The Cork-cutter cuts the bark which is stripped from the cork-tree, into a variety of small round cylindrical pieces, for the purpose of stopping casks, bottles, phials, &c. The Cork-tree is a species of oak, and this, as \ve\\ as the uses to which its bark is put, was known to tlie Greeks and Romans : by the former of whom it was called phellos, and by the latter siiher. By the Romans, we learn from Pliny, it was even em- ployed to stop vessels of every kind ; but its appli- cation to this use seems not to have been very com- mon, till the invention of glass bottles, of which pro- fessor Beckmann finds no mention before the fif- teenth century. The Cork-tree grows thirty or forty feet high, having a thick, rough, and fungous bark: its leaves are green above, and white underneath ; its fruit is an acorn, which is produced in great abundance. The bark is taken off by making an incision from the top to the bottom, and likewise one at each ex - tremity round the tree, and perpendicular to the first. The old bark being thus detached, the tree still lives, not being in the smallest degree injured ; r.nd in six or seven years a succeeding bark is again fit for use. The Cork-tree is found in great abundance in France, Spain, and Italy : from these countries we receive the bark. The bark, when stripped from the tree, is piled The Cork Cutter. The Cork-cutter. 107 up in a pit or pond, and loaded with heavy stones to flatten it ; it is then taken to be dried, when it is fit for sale. Corks are divided into bungs for stopping casks^ wine-corks for bottles, and phial-corks for stopping phials, &c. The Cork-cutter's business requires but little in- genuity ; the knives used in the operation have a peculiar construction, and they must be exceedingly sharp. The knife is almost the only instrument wanted in the trade. The principal demand for corks, is for the purpose of stopping bottles ; these are cut by men and women, who receive a certain price per gross for their labour. Cork-cutters sell, also, corks by the gross. It is one of the blackest and dirtiest of trades, and not very profitable either for the master or the journeyman. Cork is, likewise, used by young people in learning the art of swimming ; such are those represented in the plate as hanging from the ceihng. The cork waistcoat is composed of four pieces of cork ; two for the breast, and two for the back, each nearly as long as the waistcoat without flaps. The cork is covered and adapted to fit the body. It is open before, and may be fastened either with strings, or buckles and straps. The waistcoat weighs about twelve ounces, and may be made at the expence of a few shilhngs. This article of dress would be very useful to all persons who travel much by water, or who are in the habit of bathing in the open sea. Cork is also used for the inner soles of shoes. A cork spencer has lately been invented, to save persons from drowning in cases of shipwreck. It consists of a belt, containing refuse pieces of cork, inclosed in any kind of covering, and fastened round the body with tapes. In Spain cork is burnt to make that light kind of black, called Spanish-black, which is very much used by painters, The Egyptians make their cof^ f6 108 Book of Trades. fins of cork ; and these, when lined with a certaii& resinous composition, preserve the dead a great length of time. In Spain, they even line the walls of their houses with cork, which not only renders the apartments warm, but corrects the moisture of the air. Cork, when burnt and reduced to powder, is often taken internally as an astringent ; and it has been said that cups made of cork are useful for hectic persons to drink their common beverage from. Fossil cork is the name given to a kind of stone, which is the lightest of all stones ; it is a species of amianthus, consisting of flexible filDres loosely inter- woven, and resembling the vegetable cork ; it in- fusible in the fire, and farms black glass. Ttie Curritr, THE CURRIER. The business of the Currier is to prepare hides which have been under the hands of the tanner, for the use of shoe-makers, coach-makers, saddlers, book-binders, &c. The Currier derives his name from Coriarius, a worker in leather; and for the antiquity of the trade, although not the modern art of currying, the reader may be referred to the seventeenth book of Homer's iliad, line four hundred and fifty. The use of skins is very ancient, the first gar- ments in the world having been made of them. Mo- roccos are made of the skins of a kind of goats. Parchment is made of sheep-skins. The true cha- mois leather is made of the skin of an animal of the same name, though it is frequently counterfeited with common goats' and sheeps' skins. The Curriers have been an incorporated company ever since the beginning of the reign of James the First : during the reign of Queen Ehzabeth, history records an account of a fierce contention between the Curriers and Shoe-makers, respecting the dress- ing of leather, and the price to be paid them for their wn)rk ; and also respecting the places in which leather should be sold. At length it was stipulated, in the year 1590, among other articles, that the Curriers should have the dressing of all the leather brought into Leadenhall and South wark markets^ and within three miles of London. 110 Book of Trades. Currying is the last preparation of leather, and puts it into a condition to be made up into shoes, saddles, harness, &c. ; it is performed in two ways, either upon the flesh or the grain. In dressing leather for shoes, on the fleshy the first operation is soaking the leather in water till it be thoroughly wet ; then the flesh side is shaved on a board, called a beam-hoard ; that is, a piece of llgnum-mta;^ about two feet long, two inches thick, and six inches wide, placed on a wooden block fixed on the ground, to which the Currier stands at his work, with a knife \vhich has two edges ; the blade is rectangular, about twelve inches long, and from four to six inches wide, and varying in size and weight according to the work to be performed ; one end has a straight, the other a cross handle, in the plane of the knife. It is brought to a wire edge by rubbing on a stone of a coarse grit, which is after- w^ards taken off, and a finer edge produced by a finer and softer stone. The cross handle of the knife is then firmly fixed between the workman's knees, and while in a kneeling posture, he turns the edges to an angle with their former position, by means of a polished steel, similar in shape to a but- cher's steel. They are kept in order chiefly by a smaller steel, which the man holds constantly be- tween his fingers, and passes along the knives, the point within, and the side without the groove, formed by the turned edge, as occasion requires ; and as often as the edges are worn they are renewed in the same way. Beam-boards are imported sawed into the size and shape in which the Curriers use them. The name of Cox of Gloucester, is known throughout Europe as the principal maker of Curriers' knives. Lane of Cirencester, is also an approved maker j a patent has lately been obtained by Mr. Bingley, of Birmingham, for an improvement in the manufac- ture of their knives ; but they have not been suffi- II The Currier. Ill ciently tried to enable us to decide on the merits of the improvement: from what we have seen, they are, however, certainly well worth the master's at- tention. Having thus prepared the knife, the wet skin is thrown over the beam with the flesh side outwards, and the man keeps it in its position, by the pressure of his knees as he leans over the beam. The knife is then applied horizontally to the leather, and by repeated strokes downwards it is reduced to the substance required. After the leather is properly shaved, it is thrown into water again, and scoured upon a board or stone appropriated to the use. Scouring is performed by rubbing the grain or hair side with a piece of pu- mice-stone, or some other stone of a good grit, by which means a white sort of substance is forced out of the leather, called the bloom, produced in the operation of tanning. The hide is then conveyed to the shade, or drying-place, when the oily sub- stances are applied, which are put on both sides of the leather, but in a greater and thicker quantity on the flesh than on the hair side. Thus far is the process of currying in its wet state, and thus far it is called getting out. When the skin is quite dry, it undergoes other operations for the purpose of softening the leather. Whitening or paring succeeds, which is performed with a fine edge on the knife already described. It is then boarded up, or grained again, by applying the graining board first to the grain, and then to the flesh side. It is now fit for waxing, which is performed by rubbing it with a brush dipped in a composition of oil and lamp-black, on the flesh side, till it be tho- roughly black, it is then shed, called black-sizing, with a brush or sponge, dried and tallowed. After undergoing some other operations, this sort of lea- ther, called waxed leather, is curried. Boole of Trades. For leather curried on the hair side, termed black on the grain, the first operation is the same as that already described, till it is scoured. Then the black, which is a solution of copperas in bark liquor, is applied to it while wet : this is first put upon the grain, after it has been rubbed over with a brush dipped in urine; and when it is dry, it is seasoned, that is, rubbed over with, a brush dipped in copperas water on the grain, till it be perfectly black : after this the grain is raised with a fine graining-board, and the leather is oiled with a mixture of oil and tallow, when it is finished, and fit for the shoe-maker. Hides are sometimes curried for the use of sad- dlers and collar -makers, but the principal operations are much the same as those which have been already described. Hides for the roofs of coaches are sha- ved nearly as thin as those for shoes, and blacked on the grain. A fact worthy of remark is, that oil is imbibed more uniformly and effectually by wet than by dry leather, and this most probably arises from the gra- dual evaporation of the water, which gives place to the introduction of the oil, by capillary attraction ; whereas the air, if interspersed in the pores, would resist it. In the plate we see the Currier engaged in his business : on his right hand and on his left are hides which have undergone part of the operation ; and behind him, pinned to the wall, are two skins, finish- ed except the drying. In many places the business of a Currier connects with it that of the leather-dresser and leather-cut- ter, who supplies the shoe-makers and others with all their leather, black, red, blue, green, &c. Leadenhall-Market, in London, is one of the principal marts for leather : and shoe-makers and leather-cutters in the country, who command the capital, buy the greater part of their goods, parti- cularly their sole or butt leather, there. The Currier. 113 The Indian women, in Carolina and Virginia, dress buck and doe-skin with a considerable degree of skill ; and so quick, that a single woman will completely dress eight or ten skins a day. Curriers exercise their trade under a license from the Board of Excise, which they take out annually, and they are obliged to specify in the entry every room in which leather is deposited, as well as the vats and tubs in which it is soaked. Their pre- mises are of course subject to the inspection of Excise-Officers, and any hide not having the tanners' duty-mark is liable to seizure. No Currier can vise the trade of a butcher, tan- ner, &c. nor shall he curry skins insufficiently tan- ned, nor gash hides or leather on pain of forfeiting for every hide or skin Qs, 8d. Curriers not curry- ing the leather sufficiently shall forfeit the ware or the value, &c. 1 Jac. c. 22. If Curriers do not curry leather sent to them within sixteen days, between michaelmas and lady-day, and in eight days at other times, they are liable to a forfeiture of 5L 12 Geo. II. c. 25. THE CUTLER. The manufacture of edsjed tools is one of the first arts amongst men m every state of society. Though the art of the Cutler, in a general sense, comprises all those articles denominated edge- tools, it is more particularly confined to the manu- facture of knives, forks, scissars, pen-knives, razors, and swords. Damascus v/as anciently famed for its razors and swords. The latter are said to possess the advan- tages of flexibility, elasticity, and hardness. Knives and swords have been in use amongst mankind from the earliest periods, but forks and bayonets are comparatively of modern invention. Forks have not been invented much more than two hundred years : in early times they were not known, even at the entertainments of a sovereign ; but the guest who sat nearest to a joint held one part with his fingers w^hile he carved the other with his knife. They appear to have had their origin in Italy, and to have been introduced into this coun- try either in the latter end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, or in the beginning of the reign of James the First; but they were not very common till after the restoration. The first bayonets were daggers, which, after the soldiers had exhausted their ammunition, they fitted to the bore of their muskets. They were in- troduced into France about the year 1673; and among the English grenadiers in the short reign of The Cutler, The Cutler. 115 James the Second. Many are yet to be seen in the small armoury in the Tower. The use of them, fastened to the muzzle of the firelock, was also a French improvement, first adopted about 1690, and which was universally followed by the rest of Europe a few years afterwards. Those articles of cutlery which do not require a fine polish, and are of low price, are made from blistered steel. Those articles which require the edge to possess great tenacity, and at the same time superior hardness is not required, are made from sheer steel. The finer kinds of cutlery are made from steel which has been in a state of fusion, and which is termed cast-steel, no other kinds being susceptible of a fine polish. Table-knives are mostly made of sheer-steel, the tong and shoulder being of iron, the blade being attached by giving them a welding heat. The knives after forging are hardened by heating them red-hot, and plunging them into water ; they are afterwards heated over the fire till they become blue, and then ground. The handles of table knives are made of ivory, horn, bone, stag-horn, and wood, into which the blades are cemented with rosin and pulverized brick. Forks are made altogether by the aid of the stamp and appropriate dies. The prongs only are har- dened and tempered. Razors are made of cast-steel ; the edge of a razor requiring the combined advan- tages of great hardness and tenacity. The chief art in this business consists in soften- ing hardened steel, by the application of a heat not greater than that which was employed in hardening it ; for this purpose it is gradually heated, more or less according to the temper required, and cooled again either gradually or rapidly, this making no difference ; after which the steel is found to be softened or tempered exactly in proportion to the heat which it has undergone ; while the steel is tem- pering its surface displays a succession of colours. 116 Book of Trades. supposed to arise from a commencing oxidation, in. proportion as it becomes more and more heated, which the workmen in this metal have ingeniously taken advantage of, as serving to denominate the degree of temper required for different articles. The first perceptible colour is a light straw- colour, and this being produced by a small degree of heat, indicates the highest or hardest temper ; to this succeeds a full yellow, then a brown, after- wards a reddish blue, then a light blue, and lastly a full deep blue, passing into black ; which being the other extremity of the series, denotes the lowest degree of temper, and a hardness only a little su- perior to what the piece of steel would have ac- quired if, when heated for the purpose of being hardened, it had been allowed to cool gradually, instead of being plunged into a cold liquid. The old method of tempering, which is practised even yet by many manufacturers, is to lay the arti- cles on a clear coal-fire or on a hot bar, till they exhibit the requisite colours ; but small articles which are to be reduced to a blue temper are com- monly blazed ; that is, they are first dipped in oil or melted grease, and then held over the fire till the oil becomes inflamed and thus evaporated. The following table shews the temperature at which the various colours make their appearance. 430*" to 450° the several tints of straw-colour fit for razors, and such instruments as have a keen edge and a stout back, 470° a full yellow, and proper for scalpels, pen- knives, and other fine-edged instruments. 490** the brown yellow, and a proper temper for scissars and small shears. 500° the first tinge of purple, the proper temper for pocket and prpning-knives. 530° indicates purple, the temper for table and carving knives. 550° to 560° the different shades for blue, a tern- The Cutler. 117 }^er fit for watch-springs, swords, and wherever great elasticity is required. 600* corresponds with black, and the lowest de- gree of temper. Aildn's Dictionary, The principal places in this country for the manu- facture of cutlery wares are Birmingham, Sheffield, Walsall, Wolverhampton, and London ; at those towns goods of all kinds in steel are made much cheaper than in any other part of the world. In London, the same goods bear a much higher price than those manufactured in the country, although perhaps the latter may be as good in quality, yet they are not so neatly finished. Surgeons' instru- ments are, however, beyond question best of metro- politan manufacture. It is said that it is not a very uncommon practice for London Cutlers to affix their own names and marks on goods wrought in Birmingham, Sheffield, &c. by which names they can obtain for them more readily the price of town-made goods. The man represented in the back part of the plate is supposed to be forging some instrument, while the other in the front is grinding a knife on the stone, which is turned round by the labourer at the wheel. On the ground are supposed to lie a pair of irons for skates, and two sword-blades. The manufacture of skates is a part of the Cutler's busi- ness in severe winters ; and in some of the principal shops swords are also mounted ; but this does not properly belong to the Cutler's profession. The sv/ord-blades almost all come from abroad, where they are forged by large hammers moved by water- mills. In this manner the celebrated sword-blades of Solingen are made. Here the Cutler is only concerned in mounting the blades, and in making the scabbards, the expense of which may be carried to any extent. It is no uncommon thing for a sword highly finished to be worth from a hundred and fifty to three hundred guineas. 118 Book of Trades* As shaving to many people is a very painful operation, Cutlers, in different countries^ have long exerted all their skill to remove the inconvenience, but without that sort of success which may always be relied on. To whatever price we go for razors, %ve cannot depend upon their goodness ; and it often happens that in a case of razors purchased at Shef- field at a shilling a piece, we may find as many good ones as in a case bought in London at ten times the price. Ivory, with which some handles of knives are made, may be turned like w^ood, and it may by a chemical process be softened, worked into a parti^ cular form, and hardened again. There are me- thods also of colouring or staining ivory, so that we have red and green ivory as well as white : some of these methods may be seen in the article Comb- maker. The surgical instrument-maker is another species of Cutler : he makes use of the best steel, and is supposed to be more careful in finishing his instru- ments with a neater polish than common Cutlers. It has been recommended by a professional gen- tleman to dip all surgical instruments in oil pre- viously to using, except the lancet intended for ino- culation. A journeyman Cutler will with ease earn two guineas a week : those employed in the finer sorts of work much more. In all large shops one man is employed a certain number of days in each week in grinding old work ; and this part of the business pays the master well. THE DISTILLER, Distillation is the act of dropping or falling in drops, and is more particularly applied to a process in which water or other liquids are placed over fire in suitable vessels, and certain parts are separated from other parts of the same liquid by the agency of heat : it is in every sense of the term a chemical pro- cess. Distillation is of considerable antiquity : of all the vessels destined to this use the alembic is the sim- plest and the most ancient. Both Dioscorides and PHny mention the ambix, which is described by the latter of these writers : it is probable that it was in his time a mere plain still, without any beak or gut- ter. The Alchemists having adopted this instru- ment, prefixed the Arabian article al to its name, and made considerable alteration in its form : the characteristic difference between an alembic and a still seems to be in the construction of the head or capital, which in the alembic is contrived not merely to collect, but to condense the vapour ; whereas the corresponding part of a still serves merely to collect the vapour which is transmitted in an elastic state through the beak and condensed in the worm. Most of the French brandies, we are informed, are prepared by the alembic, properly so called, whereas all British spirits are drawn over from a still. 120 Book of Trades. The English still is of a very simple construction ; it is usually made of copper, and consists of a body somewhat cylindrical, and contracted at the top, called the neck, so as to admit conveniently the head or moveable upper part, which is contracted also from its bellied rotundity above, into it a few inches; by which means, with proper luting, the head and body become one vessel. At the top of the head is soldered a curved tube, gradually les- sening as it descends in the shape of a swan's neck, the beak of which tube is inserted a few inches into another tube called a worm, from its spiral convo- lutions : this juncture is also in distillation closely luted. The worm is made of pewter, and is fixed in a frame in a vessel called a worm-tub;- it goes gi'adually descending about six times round; the upper end projecting a few inches out of the upper part of the side of the worm-tub next the still, and tlie lower end projecting also a few inches out of the side of the lower part of the w^orm-tub at a suitable distance from the still, where can be placed a pro- per vessel to receive the distilled product. The worm-tub is of course filled with water, to condense and cool the liquor as it comes over. The still is usually, unless very small, furnished with a cock at its bottom, to draw off the remaining fluid after the distillation is effected; and is set with bricks in the same way as the common furnace for boihng liquids usually is. We shall include Distillation and Rectification in one article, although in this country, particularly in the metropolis and its neighbouring villages, they make two distinct trades. The great object of the Distiller ought to be to procure a perfectly flavourless spirit, which is not an easy task. The materials for distillation that have in this country been used in large quantities, are malt, molasses, and sugar. All these abound The Distiller. 121 \vith an oily matter, which rising with the spirit, communicates a disagreeable flavour, from which it is with the utmost difficulty freed. Previously to the operation of distilling, those of brewing and fermentation are necessary. Methods have been suggested, and, we believe, carried into practice, for reducing the brewing and fermentation to one operation, which are said to improve the spi- rit in quality, and greatly to augment its quantity. The following is the process : take ten pounds of malt, reduced to fine meal, and three pounds of common wheat-meal : add to these two gallons of water, and stir them well together ; then add five gallons of water boiling-hot, and stir the whole well together. Let it stand two hours, and then stir it again ; and when grown cold add to it two ounces of solid yeast, and set it by, loosely covered, in rather a warm place, to ferment. This is called the Dutch method of preparing what is called the wash for malt spirit. In London and its neighbourhood, the method is to draw and mash for spirits, as is done for beer in the article brewing, except, that instead of boiling the wort, it is pumped into coolers, and afterwards drawn into backs to be then fermented : of course no hops are used. Thus, in the opinion of some persons conversant with the subject, twice as much labour as is necessary is bestowed, and a large quantity of spirit is lost by leaving the gross bottoms out of the still for fear of burning. All simple spirits may be considered in their dif- ferent states of low-wines, proof-spirits, and alcohol, or rectified spirits. The first contain only one-sixth of spirit to five-sixths of water. Proof-spirits con- tain about one half, or rather more, of totally in- flammable spirits ; and alcohol, if very pure, con- sists wholly of spirit without any admixture or adulteration. Malt low-wines, which is the first state after dis- tillation from the washy prepared in the usual way, G 12^ Book of Trades. €ire exceedingly nauseous, owing to the gross oil of the malt which abounds in it. When these are dis- tilled gently, and by a slow fire, into proof- spirits, they leave a considerable quantity of this foetid oil behind in the still, with the phlegm ; the liquor loses its milky colour, and is clear and bright. When the proof-spirit, from malt, is distilled over again, to be brought to the state of alcohol, or rectified spirits, the utmost attention must be paid to the fire, or some of the oil will be forced over, and in- jure the whole process. The use of the balneum marice, instead of the common still, though a much more tedious process, would effectually prevent this mischief, and give a purer spirit in one rectification, than can be procured by many, by the common me- thods. The balneum marice, is a copper cylinder^ with a bottom made to be inserted into the still, and to descend within a few inches of its bottom, so that the materials to be distilled can be placed within it^ and yet have no communication with the other part of the still, which is filled two-thirds, or thereabouts, with water : the head of the still is made to fit the bath, the same as it does the still itself : by these means a more regular and equable heat is applied to the liquor to be distilled, and which cannot be easily raised much above the boiling point, or 212® of Fahrenheit's thermometer. Malt spirit, and indeed spirits from other sub- stances, must be brought into the state of alcohol, before they are adapted to internal uses ; after which they are said to be more fit for the purpose than even French brandy ; but this admits of con- siderable doubt : French Brandy containing an essential oil, or some resinous matter, which English spirits have not, that is peculiarly grateful to the stomach. A quarter of malt will generally afford, depending upon its goodness and the season of the year, from eight to fourteen gallons of alcohol. The Distiller. The Malt Distiller always gives his spirit a single rectification, /?^r se, to purify it a little ; in this state, though certainly not adapted to internal use, it is frequently, and at once, distilled into gin, or other ordinary compounds, for the common people ; who, in this country, injure their health, and eventually destroy their constitutions, by the free use of them. The Dutch never give it any further rectification than this : they distil the wash into low wines, and then at once into full-proof spirit, from which they manufacture their celebrated Holland's geneva, or gin. The spirit loses in these processes the vinous cha- racter which it had when it came out of the hands of the Malt Distiller: the alkaline salts, used by the rectifier, uniting with the oleous and aqueous parts of the liquor, it is necessary to add an extraneous substance, to give it a flavour, and this is frequently done by sweet spirits of nitre ; the common method of applying this, is by mixing it to the taste with rectified spirits. This is said to give the flavour of French brandy to our English spirits ; but we think it a poor imitation, and that it is readily detected, by even indifferent judges of that liquor : other flavours are given to spirits, by putting articles into the still, so that the flavours may come over with the distilled liquor. Compound Distillers mix with malt spirits, juniper berries, angelica root, aniseeds, tur- pentine, &c. and distill the whole over again, the produce of which is gin, spirit of aniseed, &c. Rum is distilled from sugar in the West Indies ; and having a great quantity of the essential oil of the sugar dissolved in it, it obtains by these means its characteristic taste and smell. The brandy made in France, particularly in Cogniac, Bourdeaux, and Rochelle, bears the highest price : it is, in its pure state, colourless, and obtains, perhaps, its yellow tint by extracting the colouring matter from the casks in which it is kept, or more probably it is coloured g2 124 Book of Trades, specifically by the French themselves, or by the first hnporters. The Malt distillers feed and fatten innumerable quantities of pigs upon the grains left after brewing : but the pork and lard obtained from these pigs have a flabby softness about them, very different from pork fed in the usual way in the country ; and, of course, do not fetch so high a price. Spirits from sugar and molasses, are made by dis- tilling them in water, and fermenting them in the .^ame way as the wort from malt. Perhaps there is no trade in the British dominions, the drug-trade excepted, which affords such facili- ties for fraud and adulteration ; and not one in which larger fortunes have been made, we hope to the satisfaction of the minds of those now enjoying them. A Malt Distiller requires a large capital, and much room to carry on his various operations. Distilleries are under the close inspection and superintendence of the Board of Excise, and the proprietors of them are obliged to take out an an- nual license. The Dyer THE DYER. The art of the Dyer consists in tinging clothe stuffs, or other substances, with a permanent colour, which penetrates its substance. Dyeing differs from bleaching, which is not the giving of a new colour, but brightening an old one. It differs, also, from painting, printing, or stamping, because the colours in these only reach the surface. The nature of the Dyer s business is very well represented in the oppo- site plate. The origin of the art of dyeing is involved in the same kind of obscurity which pervades the history of all those arts connected with the common wants and necessaries of life. Accident, probably, fur- nished a multitude of instances of observation, which enabled the rudest people to imitate the colours of birds and beasts. The bruising of a fruit, a flower, a leaf, is one of the most natural and obvious occur- rences to which we should look for the first notion of applying vegetable juices to dyeing, and a knowledge of the tingent properties of various herbs was thus early acquired. The art of dyeing, pro- bably, made considerable progress antecedent to the period in which regular history begins. Moses speaks of stuffs dyed blue, and purple, and scarlet, and of sheep-skins dyed red. That the people of this country were acquainted with the art of dyeing wool, yarn, and cloth, of different colours, at a very early period, will need no proof here. The art of dyeing the scarlet q3 126 Book of Trades. colour, however, by a small insect of the kermes or cochineal kind, appears to have been discovered A.D. 1000. By an act of parliament, passed in 1581, for abolishing certain deceitful stuff used in dyeing cloth, we find logwood, or black wood, of late years brought into this realm," expressly prohibited ; the colours thereof being false and deceitful to the queen s subjects at home, and discreditable be- yond sea to our merchants and dyers." Its use was again prohibited in 1597, as well as in the reign of James. But in 1661, the different laws, prohibiting its use were repealed, it being found that " the in- genious industry of these times hath taught the Dyers of England the art of fixing the colours made of logwood, a/ia^ blackwood, so as that, by experience, they are found as lasting and serviceable as the colours made with any other sort of dyeing- wood." The mystery of the art of dyeing consists chiefly in chemical processes ; and it comprises a vast col- lection of chemical experiments. The substances principally subjected to this art;^ are wool, hair, silk, cotton, hemp, and flax. Of these, the animal productions, namely, wool, hair, and silk, take the dye more readily than the vegetable sub- stances, cotton, hemp, and flax, because they seem to have a stronger attraction for the colouring parti- cles of the various dyes employed. Wool is naturally of a greasy nature, and requires to be scoured before it is submitted to the process of dyeing. Silk, previously to dyeing, must be washed with soap and warm water, and then in a cold solution of alum and water. Cotton and linen require bleaching and scouring in alkaline ley. After this, they must be steeped in a strong solution of alum and water, then washed in clear water, and afterwards rinsed in a decoction of The Dyer. 127 galls, or some other astringent, as hot as the work- man can bear. The first step of dyeing is the appHcation of what is termed a mordant: that is, something must be employed to make the substances take the dye : for by merely immersing them in the dyeing liquor, they will seldom take or retain a deep dye. Different mordants are used for preparing the same goods, and for preparing goods for different colouring drugs. Alum is the most extensively useful, being always employed for linens and cottons. For the dyeing of silk and wool, metallic solutions are more frequently used as mordants, because they have a stronger attraction for animal than vegetable substances. In dyeing, there are but three simple colours, the redy yellow^ and blue; all other colours are com- pounded of these. Different shades or tints of the same colour are produced by using different drugs, or by varying the quantity of colouring particles. Cochineal, kermes, and gum-lac, amongst the animal productions ; and madder, archil, carthamus, and Brazil-wood, amongst the vegetable, are the chief substances employed as red dyes. All the substances employed for dyeing yelloio colours are vegetable productions ; and the princi- pal blue dyes are from indigo, woad, logwood, and Prussian blue. Compound colours are produced sometimes, by mixing the simple colours in the dyeing liquor, and sometimes by dyeing the stuff first in a bath of one simple colour, then in another. The principal substances employed to give a black colour, are galls^ which contain the astringent prin- ciple, or tannin, and an acid, called the gallic acid, and the red oxide of iron. The black colour is produced by the combination of the astringent prin- ciple, with the oxide of iron in conjunction with the acid, and fixed on the stuff. e 4 128 Book of Trades. Logwood is not to be considered as affording a black dye^ but it is much employed to give a lustre to black colours. Of the substances employed in dyeing brown, walnut-peels and sumach are the principal. Scarlet dyeing in general, is a distinct and sepa- rate branch of trade ; the materials being of that delicate kind, as easily to be injured by any acci- dental admixture of other colours, and part of the apparatus being somewhat different from common dyeing. A dye-house, which should be set down as near as possible to a stream of water, should be spacious and well lighted. It should be floored with plaster, and proper means should be adopted to carry off water, or spent baths, by channels or gutters, so that every operation may be conducted with the utmost attention to cleanliness. The size and posi- tion of the caldrons are to be regulated by the nature and extent of the operations for which they are designed. Excepting for scarlet and other delicate colours, in which tin is used as a mordant, the caldrons should be of brass or copper. Brass being less apt than copper to be acted on by chemi- cal agents, and to communicate spots to the stuffs, is fitter for the purpose of a dyeing vessel. It is of the greatest consequence that the coppers or caldrons be well cleaned for every operation ; and that vessels of a large size should be furnished at the bottom with a pipe and a stop-cock for the greater convenience of emptying them. There must be a hole in the wall, or chimney, above each copper, to admit poles for the purpose of draining the stuffs which are immersed, so that the liquor may fall back into the vessel, and no part may be lost. Dyes for silk, where a boiling heat is not neces- sary, are prepared in troughs or backs, which are long copper or wooden vessels. The colours which The Dyer. 129 are used for silks are extremely delicate ; they must, therefore, be dried quickly, and not be long exposed • to the action of the air, that there may be no risk of change : for this purpose it is necessary to have a drying-room heated with a stove. Notwithstanding the discoveries of modern che- mistry in the art of dyeing, and the permanency with which colours are now affixed to cloths, there yet remain many secrets in this branch of the arts known but to a few persons ; and who in conse- quence have much emolument to themselves : and it will sometimes happen that with the utmost skill and ingenuity, and the application of chemical prin- ciples too, that the unlettered plodder shall in the arts excel the most acute practical philosopher of the age. In London there are dyers of all sorts ; some dye only wool, others silk ; some confine themselves to particular colours, such as scarlet and blue. The scarlet dyeing is said to be the most ingenious and the most profitable. The business of a Dyer is laborious and chilly; the workmen are constantly dabbling in water, hot and cold. Silk-dyers have the least laborious business: journeymen will earn thirty shilUngs a week. 0 5 THE ENGRAVER. Engraving on copper, wood, stone, &c. is em- ployed in representing different subjects, as por- traits, historical pieces, landscapes, &c. either after paintings, or after designs made for the purpose. It is performed either with the graver y the dry pohit, or with aquafortis. The art of engraving in England has gradually arisen to its present advanced state from the rude mechanical practice of our British ancestors. That it was practised in this island from a very early period, may be seen by the remains of the instru- ments of war, and other antiquities which have been found in the Celtic and Saxon tumuli : these fre- quently bear the marks of the graver, or some tool very similar to it ; and the numerous coins of anti- quity must satisfy every inquirer of the early Bri- tish existence of this species of engraving ; an art which is thought to have been introduced from Rome. Engraving has been performed in different coun- tries and at different periods of time on various sub- stances, chiefly on metals, wood, and the oriental pre- cious stones called gems ; but with instruments which have varied but little since their first invention. En- graving on copper for the purpose of producing im- pressions on paper may almost be said to be an art of modern invention ; for though the ancients ornament- ed their armour, metal vases, &c. by this means, they 5 The Engraver. The Engraver, lol never appear to have thought of printing from the incisions or hnes cut with the graver ; nor was it thought of till about the middle of the fifteeoth century. This art is ascribed to a goldsmith at Florence, who having placed a sheet of oiled paper under a plate of silver that was engraved, and on which by accident he had laid a heavy weight, was surprised to find a complete impression of the plate on the paper. Engravings on copper may be divided into several species as engraving in aquatinta ; in the chalk manner ; with aquafortis in mezzotinto ; and the original art of engraving in lines. We shall begin with the latter. The tools necessary for engraving in lines are gravers, a scraper, burnisher, an oil-stone, a sand- bag, an oil-rubber, and some good charcoal. The gravers are instruments of tempered steel fitted into a wooden handle. They are either square or in the lozenge form ; the first is used in cutting very broad strokes, and the other for fainter and more delicate lines. The scraper is a three-edged tool for scraping off' the burr or roughness raised by the graver. Burnishers are for rubbing down lies that may be cut too deep, or for taking out scratches or defects in the copper ; they are made of hard steel well rounded and polished. The oil-stone is for sharpening the gravers, and the oil-rubber and charcoal for polishing the plate when necessary. The sand-bag or cushion is for laying the plate upon for the convenience of turning it round in any direction : this is principally used by engravers of writing. Having the copper, tools, and drawing ready, the first thing is to lay the design on the plate : for this purpose the plate is to be covered over with a thin a 6 Book of Trades. skin of virgin wax ; and the drawing or picture m to be copied on paper with a black-lead pencil, or ciny matter that is free from gum : this paper is to be laid upon the plate with its penciled side upon the wax, and pressed all over so completely that when the paper is withdrawn the impression may remain upon the waxed plate ; then with a sharp pointed tool trace the design through the wax on to the copper. The plate is now to be warmed and the wax cleaned off ; after which the engraving is to be finished by means of the gravers. The dry-point or needle, so called, because not used till the ground is taken off the plate, is princi- pally employed in the extremely light parts of water, sky, drapery, &c. Etching is a method of engraving on copper, in which the lines or strokes instead of being cut with a tool or graver are bit in with aquafortis or nitrous acid, which is thus performed : the copper-plate is first warmed, and then thinly covered with varnish ; it is then to be blackened over with the smoke of a wax candle. The ground being now laid and suffered to cool, the next operation is to transfer the design to the plate. For this purpose the drawing must be traced on oiled paper with pen and ink, having some ox's gall mixed with it. Another piece of white p?.per must be rubbed with flake-white, and laid on the varnished copper, with the white side next the plate : upon this is to be put the traced oil paper, and fastened with a piece of bordering wax to the copper. When this is done all the lines in the tracing must be gone over with a blunt etching-needle, by which means the lines will be transferred to the ground when the papers are taken away. The plate is now prepared for drawing through the lines which have been marked upon the ground. The Engraver^ 133 For this etching, points or needles are employed, leaning hard or lightly, according to the degree of strength required in the lines. A margin or border of wax is now to be formed all round the plate, to hold the aquafortis when it is poured on; where it is to be left till the operation is completed. The biting-in of the plate, as it is so called, is the most uncertain part of the process, and nothing but experience can ena- ble a person to know when the plate is sufficiently bit. When the acid has been long enough to bite the lines that are to be faintest, the aquafortis is poured off, the plate washed and dried, and those lines that are to be made no deeper must be stopped with turpentine varnish, mixed with a little lamp- black, and laid on with a camelVhair pencil; and when thoroughly dry the aquafortis may be poured on again to bite the other lines that are required to be deeper. When the biting is finished, the bordering-wax and ground are to be taken off, the plate cleaned, and an impression taken upon paper by a Cop- per-plate Printer; which impression is called a proof. In almost all engravings on copper that are exe- cuted in the stroke manner, etching and graving are combined; the plate being generally begun by etching, and finished with the graver. Land- scapes, architecture, and machinery, are subjects that receive most assistance from the art of etch- ing : it is not so applicable to portraits and historical designs. Mezzotinto is an art of a late date : it is recom- mended by the ease with which it is executed, espe-* cially by those who understand drawing. Mezzo- tinto prints are those which have no strokes of the graver, but whose lights and shades are blended 134 Book of Trades. together, and appear like a drawing of Indian-ink. They are different from aquatinta : but as both re- semble Indian-ink their difference is not easily described. Engraving on wood is a process exactly the re- verse of engraving on copper. In the latter the strokes to be printed are sunk or cut into the cop- per, and a rolling press is used for printing it; but in engraving on wood all the wood is cut away except the lines to be printed, which are left stand- ing up like types, and the mode of printing is the same as that used v\ letter-press. The w^ood for this purpose is box-wood, which is planed quite smooth. The design is then drawn upon the wood itself with black-lead, and all the wood is cut away with gravers and other proper tools, except the lines that are drawn; or sometimes the design is drawn upon paper, and pasted on the wood, which is cut as before. This art is of considerable diffi- culty ; and there are comparatively few who prac- tise it. But of late years the art of cutting designs upon wood has arrived at a vast degree of per- fection, especially under the celebrated Bewicks of Newcastle, who have carried their execution in this respect to a pitch of elegance, rivalling, and in some instances almost surpassing, copper-plate engraving; which before their time was believed to be utterly unattainable. There are at the pre- sent time some Engravers on wood in the me- tropolis, whose workmanship is exquisite. The best light to work at this kind of engraving is that passed from a lamp through a glass globe filled with water, which, by its concentrating power, throws a suitable light on the Engraver s cushion. The screen that is suspended in the plate be- fore the window is to keep off the glare of light, which would be mischievous to the Engraver's The Engraver. 135 business. The screen consists of four laths joined at their ends, and covered on both sides with silver paper. Engraving is one of the fine arts, and some of its professors, as well now as in the last century, have obtained great celebrity in consequence of their productions. THE GARDENER. Agriculture is the first and noblest of all arts. It is this which manifests the pre-eminence of man, and which most distinguishes him from all other animals. In hunting and fishing man has innumer- able rivals. Many quadrupeds and birds excel in these two arts, but man alone cultivates the earth, and sows to gather the harvest. This art is scarcely known to savage nations : for till man becomes settled into fixed commu- nities, it is neither his interest nor his inclination to derive advantages from the culture of the soil : he would of course learn from the inferior animals to gather some of nature's produce, but his more ready means of support would be the chase ; which is at this day the method adopted for the most part by the savages of America to supply their wants. Gardening must have been of course for a long- time in a very rude and imperfect state. Even in England, many of the conveniences and luxuries supplied by the modern garden are comparatively of recent introduction ; ingenuity and research are continually adding to the stock. Rewards from agricultural and other societies are now constantly held out to stimulate us to overcome the deficiences yet abounding in the produce of the earth, which operate to the perfection of this invaluable art, and to the advantage and support of mankind. The Romans are said to have first brought Cher- The Gardener, The Gardener. 137 Hes to this country, which were afterwards lost, and are supposed to have been brought in again from Flanders, by Richard Harris, fruiterer to Henry the Eighth. The Perdrigon Plum was introduced by Lord Cromwell, in the reign of Henry the Seventh. Apricots were brought from Italy, by Wolf, the King's Gardener, in 1524. The Pale Gooseberry came from Flanders about the same time when Figs were also introduced. The first Mulberry-trees are said to be those which still remain at Sion-house. Melons, Cucumbers, and some other of the more expensive productions of the kitchen-garden, are said to have been very common in the time of Ed- ward the Third. Oranges do not seem to have been grown in England before the reign of Queen Elizabeth. It was in 1590 that the first two Lime-trees were brought to England. The Pine-apple was intro- duced about the time of Charles the Second. The Tea-tree was brought over from China, about sixty years ago. ArtichoJces were first grown in the time of Henry the Eighth. Sir Anthony Ashley, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, first planted Cabbages in England, which were brought from Holland: and Potatoes were introduced from America by Sir Walter Raleigh, about 1580. Of Flowers, those which are not of our own indi- genous growth have been improved by culture. The Tube-rose /was brought to Europe from the East Indies, about 1594, where it grows wild in Java and Ceylon. The Auricula, which grows wild among the long moss covered with snow on the confines of Switzerland and Steyermark, was first cultivated with care by the Flemings. The Croivn Imperial was brought from Persia to Constantinople in the sixteenth century, and thence to Vienna ; whence it was dispersed all over Europe. The Persian Lily was brought from Susa to Coi> 138 Book of Trades. stantinople, African and French Marigolds^ with the Bella-donna Lily, were brought from South America. The first account we have of RuCy in England, is in 1562. Lavender appears to have been cultivated in Europe but a short period before 1568. The Christmas-rose and the Iris, both natives of Italy, were unknown to the gardens of this coun- try till 1596. The Guernsey Lily was first culti- vated in Europe in the beginning of the seventeenth century. The Gardener, who may be called a refined agri- culturist, is one who is engaged in dhe management and cultivation of fruit-trees, shrubs, flowers, plants, and vegetables of all kinds. Gardens are distinguished into Flower , Fruity and Kitchen-gardens* The first are for pleasure and ornament, and are therefore placed in the most conspicuous situation ; the two latter are for service, and are made in more obscure and retired places. They were formerly distinct, but they are now gene- rally united, because they both require a good soil and exposure, and are generally placed out of view of the house. The principal operations of the Gardener are planting, and transplanting, engrafting, inoculating, pruning, sowing, &c. most of these are so well un- derstood, that we shall only speak on the subject of engrafting, which is the art of inserting the shoot of one tree into the stock of another, in order to obtain fruit of a specific character and known quality. The implements necessary for this business are a grafting-knife, a quantity of strings for bandages, (Russia matting is very commonly used for this purpose,) to tie the stocks and grafts firmly together; and some well- wrought clay to put over the tying, to secure them from the air and the wet. When the grafts or shoots, which are generally to be preferred of th^ last year's growth, are quite The Gardener. 1S9 ready, fix upon a smooth part of the stock, and then pare off the rind with a Httle bit of the wood in a sloping direction about an inch in length ; then, having the shoots cut into lengths with four or five eyes on each, prepare one to fit the stock exactly, then cut a slit or tongue about half an inch in length upwards in the shoot, and another the same length downwards in the stock to receive it ; and in that manner fix the graft in the stock, taking care that the sap and rind of both may join as exactly as pos- sible in every part. Having thus fixed the graft, let it be immediately tied with a string of some ma- terial, bringing it several times round the graft and stock, taking care to preserve the graft in its proper position; and let the bandage be neatly tied, and the place be covered with some grafting-clay, in such a manner that neither the air, the rays of the sun, nor the wet can enter. This is called whip- grafting, and is only one of several ways, in which engrafting is performed by Europeans. The Chinese, in place of raising fruit-trees from seeds or from grafts, as is the custom in Europe, have adopted the following method of increasing them. They select a tree of that species which they wish to propagate, and fix upon such a branch as will least hurt or disfigure the tree by its removal. Round this branch, and as near as they can con- veniently to its junction with the trunk, they wind a rope made of straw, besmeared with cow dung, until a ball is formed, five or six times the diameter of the branch. This is intended as a bed into which the young roots may shoot. Having performed this part of the operation, they immediately under the ball divide the bark down to the wood, for nearly two-thirds of the circumference of the branch. A cocoa-nut shell, or small pot, is then hung over the ball with a hole in its bottom, so small that water put therein will only fall in drops ; by this the rope 140 BooJc of Trades. is constantly kept moist, a circumstance necessary to the easy admission of the young roots, and to the supply of nourishment to the branch from this new channel. During three succeeding weeks nothing further is required, except supplying the vessels with water. At the expiration of that period one-third of the remaining bark is cut, and the former incision is carried considerably deeper into the wood, as by this time it is expected that some new roots have struck into the rope, and are giving their assistance in support of the branch. After a similar period the same operation is re- peated, and in about two months from the com- mencement of the process, the roots may generally be seen intersecting each other on the surface of the ball, which is a sign that they are sufficiently advanced to admit the separation of the branch from the tree. This is best done by sawing it oflf at the incision, care being taken that the rope, which by this time is nearly rotten, is not shaken off by the motion. The branch is then planted as a young tree. To succeed in Europe in this operation, as vege- tation is slower, a longer period would probably be necessary ; one month additional will be however sufficient. The advantages arising from this me- thod, are, that the trees so produced will arrive much sooner to bearing fruit than by the common method. The cultivation of flowers is a very pleasing em- ployment ; by a proper attention many flowers are brought from a mean and simple appearance to a large, brilliant, and beautiful one. There are many Florists' gardens in the neighbourhood of the me- tropolis, which, in the summer, afford a high grati- fication to those persons who have any relish for the smells and colours which nature, aided by art, so profusely scatters abroad. The Gardener. 141 There are several kind of Gardeners ; some gain a living by looking after other people's gardens; for which they receive a certain sum per annum , ac^ cording to the size of the garden. Others live in gentlemen's houses, and, like domestics in general, receive wages for their labour, from twenty to a hundred pounds per annum, according to their merit, or what may be expected of them. Some Gardeners go out to day-work, whose wages are from three to five shillings a day. Besides these we have Market-Gardeners, that is, persons who raise vegetables and fruit, which they expose to sale in markets and other places. Gardens for the raising of vegetables for sale were first cultivated about Sandwich in Kent. The ex- ample was soon followed near the metropolis ; and, perhaps, there is not a finer sight any where than Covent-Garden market, about six or seven o'clock in a morning of a Saturday, during the early part of the summer. Within a few miles of the metropolis there are supposed to be about five thousand acres of land constantly cultivated for the supply of the London markets with garden vegetables, exclusive of about eight hundred acres cropped with fruit of various kinds, and about seventeen hundred acres cultivated for potatoes. In the parish of Fulham the cultivation of gardens for the market is carried on to a greater extent than in any other part of the kingdom. The parishes of St. Paul's Deptford, Chiswick, Battersea, and Mort- lake, are celebrated for their asparagus. Deptford is also famous for the culture of onions for seed, of which, on an average, there are about twenty acres annually. The Gardener represented in the plate is in the Flower-garden, in the act of digging with his spade : the watering-pot, rake, &c. stand before him ; on his right hand is a bed of tulips ; and beyond them, I 142 Book of Trades, on a stand, several pots of auriculas ; on his left hand is the aloe, which blossoms once only in a cen- tury. In the smaller pots are some young plants of the same kind, not yet transplanted into separate boxes or tubs made for the purpose. Glifss Blower. THE GLASS-BLOWER. Glass is a transparent^ solid, brittle substance, formed by the combination of flint or silex, with alkaline salts and metallic oxydes. It is applicable to innumerable purposes of ornament and comfort, as well as of scientific investigation and research. The invention of glass is very ancient : the books of Moses and of Job make mention of it. Aristo- phanes, Aristotle, and Pliny, speak of it in their works. Aristotle, who flourished three centuries and a half before the Christian aera, proposes two problems concerning glass : one is, why we see through it, the other, why it will not bend. Theo- phrastus, who flourished about three hundred years before Christ, describes glass as having been made of the sand of the river Belus : and the sphere of Archimedes is a remarkable instance of the perfec- tion to which the art of glass-making had been brought at that early period, namely, two hundred and nine years before Christ. For the sake of our young readers, we may remind them that Virgil, in his fifth Eneid, compares the clearness of the water of the Facine lake to glass: and Horace, in his third book of the Odes, mentions glass in such terms as shew that its transparency was brought to great perfection. In the time of Straho the manu- facture of glass was well understood, and had be- come a considerable article of trade. Seneca seems not only to have been well acquainted with glass, but also understood its magnifying powers when Hi Book of Trades. formed into a convex shape. Pirn?/ relates the j manner of the discovery of glass : it was, he says, first made from sand found in the riv er Be lus ; a Phoenician merchant-ship, laden with mineral alkali (now understood to be some preparation of soda), J be?n- driven on the coast, and the crew going ashore ( for provisions, and dressing their victuals on the sand; Je of some lumps of alkali to support their It:^. Hence a vitrification of the sand be^ \ neath ti:\e fire was produced, which afforded a hint to ihe manufacturer. The earliest positive authority relating to the use of glass in windows, is said to be in a passage of \ Lactaniius, one of the Fathers of the Christian Church, in the third century. Bede mentions, that artificers skilled in making- glass were brought over to England in the year 674 ; glass windows did not begin to be used before i 1180: for a long time they were very scarce, and ; considered as a kind of luxury, and as marks of great magnificence. i . Painted glass is supposed to have been introduced in the reign of John, although we have no known specimens earlier than the time of Henry the Third. The regular glass manufacture was begun in England, in 1557. As it would be impossible, in the small limits to which we are confined, to enter at large into the composition of glass, we shall merely state, that flint-glass is made by melting, in a very strong fire, one hundred and twenty pounds of white sand, fifty pounds of red lead, forty pounds of the purest pearl- ash, twenty pounds of nitre (nitrate of potash), and five ounces of magnesia. Crown, or window-glass, contains no lead ; it consists of soda and fine sand. Bottle-glass is the coarsest of all, and is composed of \J kelp and common sand, or sand and the refuse of the soap-boiler. Of these the most fusible is the flint-glass, and the least fusible the bottle-glass. The Glass-blower. 145 The furnace in which the glass is melted is round, and has several apertures, in one of which the fuel is introduced ; the others serve to lade out the melted metal. When the ingredients are perfectly fused, and have acquired the necessary degree of heat, part of the melted matter is taken out at the end of a hol- low tube about two feet and a half long, which is dipped into it, and turned about till a sufScient quantity is taken up ; the workman then rolls it gently upon a piece of iron to unite it more inti- mately. He then, as it is represented in the plate, blows through the tube till the melted mass at the extremity swells into a bubble ; after which he again rolls it on a smooth surface to polish it, and repeats the blowing till the glass is brought as near the size and form of the vessel required as he thinks necessary. There are three principal kinds of glasses distin- guished by the form or manner of working them, viz. round glass, as bottles, drinking-glasses, &c. table or window-glass ; of this also there are several kinds, and plate-glass. If a bottle is to be formed, the melted glass at the end of the tube is put into a mould of the exact size and shape of its body, and the neck is formed on the outside by drawing out the ductile glass. If it be a vessel with a wide orifice the gTass in its melted state is opened and widened v/ith an iron tool ; after which, being again heated, it is whirled about by a circular motion, till it is extended to the size required. If a handle, foot, or any thing else of the kind be required, these are made separately, and stuck on in the melted state. Window-glass is formed in a similar manner, ex- cept that the hquid mass is blown into large globes, and detached from the first iron tube by the assis- tance of a second person, who fixes his iron tube at the opposite side of the globe; a: id the man who IT i 146 Book of Trades. originally blew it then separates his tube from it ; the mouth of the globe is gradually widened till it ultimately becomes, in the hand of the workman, a circular planisphere. The best window-glass was, till within these few years, made at RadcliiFe : but this manufactory is now abandoned, and the crown, as well as the green and black-bottle glass, is brought principally to London from Newcastle-upon- Tyne. Plate-glass for looking-glasses, and some superior windows, is made by suffering the mass in a state of complete fusion to flow upon a table covered with copper, with iron ledges to confine the melted mat- ter, and as it cools a metalic roller is passed over it to reduce it to an uniform thickness. Glass is sometimes coloured by mixing it while in a fluid state with various metallic oxydes. It is coloured blue by the oxyde of cobalt ; red by the oxyde of gold; green by the oxyde of copper or iron ; yellow by the oxyde of silver or antimony ; and violet by the oxyde of magnesia. Although glass when cold is brittle, it is one of the most ductile bodies known in its melted state ; if a thread of melted glass be drawn out and fas- tened to a reel the whole of the glass may be wound ofF; and by cutting the threads of a certain length there is obtained a sort of feather glass. A thread of glass may be drawn or spun so fine as to be scarcely visible to the naked eye. Glass is very elastic and sonorous ; fluoric acid dissolves it ; it is by this acid that engravings are made upon glass ; aiui the alkalis act upon it when in a melted state. Articles made of glass require to be gradually cooled in an oven ; this operation, called annealing, is necessary to prevent them from breaking by change of temperature, wiping, &c. Plate-glass comes from the manufactory in a very rough state ; it is scarcely transparent. It is then ground with sand, and pohshed with emery and G The Glass-blower. 147 putty, formed of lead and tin, calcined together. This last substance is the principal thing used in forming white enamels and glazings for earthen- ware. Glass-makers usually ^vork in the cold months, owing to the great heat of their furnaces : their wages are large in proportion to the disadvantages attending their labours. Glass-grinders and polishers work by the piece, and may get a good living, considering that little more ingenuity is required than that which is neces- sary for common labourers. H 2 THE GOLD-BEATER. The Gold-Beater is a workman who by con- tinually beating gold or silver Upon marble with a hammer, in thin skins, reduces these metals into Very thin leaves proper for gilding or silvering cop- per, iron, steel, wood, and a variety of other ma- terials. Tliis art is very ancient. Although the Romans did not carry it so far as we now do, it is very cer- tain that immediately after the destruction of Car'- thage, and during the censorship of Lucius Mum- mius they began to gild the interior of their houses in Rome. The wainscots of the capitol were the first done, and luxury afterwards became so great, that private persons had both the walls and ceil- ings of their apartments ornamented with this pre- cious metal. Pliny assures us that they made from one ounce of gold five or six leaves four fingers square ; but that a much greater number could be made having regard to their thickness. That the thickest were called prcsnestines, from a statue of Fortune at PrcBuesie, which was gilt with thick leaves, and that those which were thinner w^ere called questoriales. Gold in itself, and when very pure, is soft, easily cut or graved, and so tough that when at length made to break by repeated bendings backwards and forwards, the fracture on each of the pieces appears drawn out like a wedge. The fineness to which a body of gold may be The Gold Beater, The Gold-beater, 149 reduced is almost incredible. Mr. Boyle found that upwards of fifty square inches of gold weighed but a single grain ; and as a cubic inch of gold contains four thousand nine hundred and two grains, the thickness of the gold-leaf was less than the two hun- dred and forty thousandth part of an inch. Gold to be made into leaf is first melted in a cru- cible with some borax; it is then poured into an iron mould, from which it is taken and made red hot and forged into a long plate, which is farther extended by being passed repeatedly between po- lished rollers till it becomes as thin as paper. It is now cut into pieces of equal size and weight, which are forged and well annealed to correct the stiffness which the metal has contracted in hammering and flatting. In farther extending these pieces into fine leaves it is necessary to interpose some smooth body be- tween them and the hammer for softening the blow, and defending them from the rudeness of its imme- diate action ; as also to place between every two of the pieces some proper intermedium, which, while it prevents them from uniting together or injuring one another, may suffer them freely to extend. For this Gold-Beaters use three kinds of membranes : for the outside cover common parchment made of sheep-skin ; for interlaying with the gold the closest vellum made of calf-skin ; and afterwards finer skinai made of a thin substance stript off from the gut, slit open and curiously prepared for the purpose ; hence the name of Gold-beater s skin. The pre- paration of these membranes is a distinct business, practised only by a few persons in the kingdom. The beating of the gold is performed on a smooth block of marble, weighing from two to six hundred weight ; fitted into the middle of a w^ooden frame, so that the surface of the marble may form one plane. Three of the sides are furnished with a high ledge; and the front, v/hich is open, has a 150 Book of Trades. leathern flap fastened to it, which the Gold-beater takes before him as an apron for preserving the fragments of gold which fall off. Three hammers are employed ; all of them with two round and somewhat convex faces, though the workman seldom uses more than one of the feces. The first hammer v» eighs fifteen or sixteen pounds, and is called the catch hammer ; the second is called the sJiodering hammer, and weighs twelve pounds ; the third is the finishing hammer, and weighs about ten pounds. One hundred and fifty pieces of gold are interlaid with leaves of vellum three or four inches square, one vellum leaf being placed between every two of the pieces, and about twenty more of the vellum leaves on the outsides ; over these is drawn a parch- ment case open at both ends ; and over this another in a contrary direction. So that the assemblage of gold and vellum leaves is kept tight and close on all sides. The whole is beaten with the heaviest ham- mer, and every now and then turned upside down till the gold is stretched to the extent of the vellum. The pieces taken out from between the vellum- leaves are cut into four with a steel knife : the six hundred divisions are next interlaid in the same manner with pieces of ox-gut skins, five inches square. The beating is to be again repeated till the golden plates have acquired the extent of the skins, when they are a second time to be divided into four. The instrument used for this division is a piece of cane cut to an edge, the leaves being now so slight that the moisture of the air or the breath condensing on a metallic knife would occasion them to stick to it. After a third beating in a similar way the leaves are taken up by the end of a cane instrument, and, being blown flat on a leathern cushion, are cut to a .size one by one with a square frame of cane, made of a proper sharpness; they are then fitted intQ The Gold-beater. 151 books of twenty-five leaves each, the paper of which is well smoothed, and rubbed with red bole to pre- vent their sticking to it. The process of Gold-beating is very much in- fluenced by the weather ; both damp and frost are injurious to the operation. Gold-leaf ought to be prepared from the finest gold, as an admixture of other metals, though in too small a proportion sensibly to affect the colour of the leaf would dispose it to lose a part of its beauty in the air. Besides the greater hardness of alloyed gold occasions as much or even more to be lost in time and labour than can be gained by adul- terating the metal. Gold-leaf is applied in the art of gilding to the surface of bodies, and it is done in two ways. Wood, leather, paper, and other like substances, are gilt by fastening on leaves of gold by some cement ; but metals are gilt by a chemical applica- tion of gold to the surface. This last is called water-gilding. Silver-leaf is, however, often ap- plied to the plating of metals without the interven- tion of chemical agents, if we except pumice-stone and heat. H 4 THE GUN-MAKER. The business of the Gun-maker is the manufac- taring of iire-arms of the smaller sorts, as muskets, fowHng-pieces, pistols, &c. The exact time when gun-powder and fire-arms were first employed in war by the British nation is difficult to be discovered. If Robert Bruce may be credited, Edward the Third used cannon in his first campaign against the Scots, in 1327. The French undoubtedly used them in 1338, as well as Edward at the battle of Cressy in 1346. But fire-arms of a portable construction were not, however, invented till the beginning of the sixteenth century. In 1521, the musket, mounted on a stock, was used at the siege of Parma ; and probably was soon after adopted in England. Its form was clumsy, and its w^eight inconvenient; vv^hile the bow in the hands of an English archer retained the cre- dit of having, within a determinate range, a steadier aim and greater execution. The pistol had its origin from Pistoya, a town of Tuscany, and was introduced into England about the middle of the sixteenth century. Many of the shields said to have been the spoils of the Armada in 1588, have pistols in the centre with little gratings for the aim. They were sometimes introduced at the butt-end of the pike, as well as in the time of Edward at the Sixth, at the lower end of the battle- axe. In the reign of James the First we find muskets The Gun-maker. 153 and calivres among the principal weapons of the infantry, as well as pistols and carabines of the cavalry. The great alteration when matchlocks were no longer used took place about the third or fourth year of William the Third. The progress of fire-arms in France was not dis- similar to that in England. It was not till after the accession of Francis the First, in 1515, that any considerable change was effected. Between that time and the death of Henry the Third, in 1589, pikes, the ancient weapon of the French infantry, gave place to the arquebuss ; while in the cavalry lances were gradually and reluctantly exchanged for the pistol. At that period, the Spaniards were far superior to the French in the art of war. The infantry of Philip the Second, by whom the use of fire-arms was very early adopted, spread terror over Europe. For the introduction of the bayonet we refer to the article Cutler. The principal part of the musket, fowling-piece, pistol, &c. is the barrel, which, however, is not made by those who call themselves Gun-smiths, but by persons who forge them in a large way, and who have forges and premises adapted to the busi- ness; the forges used by Gun-smiths being on a much smaller scale than those required for the manufacture of the barrels. Among Gun-smiths great attention is paid to the division of labour: one man or set of men is employed in what is termed the boring, though in truth the barrels are formed at first with a bore throughout, but not with that accuracy which is required for these kind of instruments ; other per- sons are employed to file and polish the outside of the barrel; to some is allotted the business of making and fixing the breech, the touch-hole, &c. others forge the locks in a rough way, and others are employed to file, polish, and put together 154 BooJc of Trades. the several parts of which the locks are com- posed. The barrel ought to possess the following pro- perties : lightness, that it may be as portable as pos- sible, and strength to bear the effect of a full charge without bursting : it ought to be constructed so as not to recoil with violence, and it ought to be of sufficient length to carry the bullet to as great a distance as the force of the powder employed is capable of doing. To form a gun-barrel in the manner generally practised for those denominated common, the work- men begin by heating and hammering out a bar of iron into the form of a flat ruler, thinner at the end intended for the muzzle, and thicker at that for the breech ; the length, breadth, and thickness of the whole plate being of course regulated by the in- tended length, diameter, and weight of the barrel. This oblong plate of metal is then by repeated ham- mering turned round a cylindrical rod of tempered iron, called a mandril, whose diameter is consider- ably less than the intended bore of the barrel. The edges of the plate are made to overlap each other about half an inch, and are welded together by heating the tube in lengths of two or three inches at a time, and hammering it with very brisk but moderate strokes upon an anvil which has a number of semicircular furrows upon it, adapted to the various sizes of barrels. The heat required for welding is the bright white heat which pre- cedes fusion, and at which the particles of the iron unite so intimately with one another, that when properly managed no trace is left of their former separation. These heatings and hammerings are repeated until the whole barrel has undergone th^ same operation, and all its parts are rendered as perfectly continuous as if it liad been bored out of a solid piece. For better work the barrel forged in separate pieces of eight or nine inchea The Gun-maker. 155 in length, and then welded together lengthways as well as in the lapping over. The other mode being the easiest and quickest done is the most usual. The barrel is now either finished in the common manner, or made to undergo the operation of twist- ing, which is a process commonly employed on those barrels which are intended to be of a superior quality and price. This operation consists in heat- ing the barrel in portions of a few inches at a time to a high degree of red heat, when one end of it is screwed into a vice, and into the other is introduced a square piece of iron with a handle like an auger, and by means of these the fibres of the heated por- tion are twisted in a spiral direction, which is thought to resist the efforts of the powder much better than a longitudinal one. Pistol-barrels, which are to go in pairs, are forged in one piece, and are cut asunder at the muzzles after they have been bored ; by which there is not only a saving of iron and labour, but a certainty of the calibre being the same in both. The next operation consists in boring ; this is done in the following manner : two beams of strong wood, as oak,- each of about six inches in diameter, and six or seven feet long, are placed horizontally and parallel to each other, having their extremities mortised upon a strong upright piece about three feet high, and firmly fixed. A space of from two to four inches is left between the horizontal pieces, in which apiece of wood is made to slide, by having at each end a tenon let into a groove, which runs on the inside of each beam throughout its whole length. Through this sliding piece a pin, or bolt of iron, is driven or screwed in a perpendicular direction, having at its upper end, a round hole, large enough to admit the breech of the barrel, which is secured on it by means of a piece of iron, that serves as a wedge and a vertical screw passing h6 156 Book of Trades, through the upper part of the hole. A chain \s fastened to a staple on one side of the sliding piece, which runs between the two horizontal beams, and passing over a pulley at one end of the machine has a weight hooked to it. An upright piece of timber is fixed above this pulley, between the end of the beams, having its upper end perforated by the axis of an iron crank furnished with a square socket ; the other axis being supported by the wall on a strong post, and loaded with a heavy wheel of cast iron to give it force. The axes of the crank are in a line with the hole in the bolt already de- scribed. The borer being then fixfed into the socket of the crank has its other end, previously well oiled, introduced into the barrel, whose breech part is made fast in the hole of the bolt ; the chain is then carried over the pulley and the v/eight hooked on ; the crank being then turned with the hand, the barrel advances as the borer cuts its w^ay, till it has passed through the whole length. The boring bit is a rod of iron somewhat longer than the barrel, one end being made to fit the socket of the crank, and the other being furnished with a cylindrical plug of tempered steel about an inch and a half in length, and having its surface cut in the manner of a perpetual screw. A num- ber of bits, each a httle larger than the preceding one, are afterwards passed successively through the barrel in the same way, until it has acquired the in- tended calibre. The last operation is that of colouring the barrel, previously to which it is polished with fine emery and oil, until it presents to the eye throughout its whole length a perfectly smooth and even surface. The practice of blueing is now discontinued, and browning is adopted in its stead. To do this, the barrel is rubbed over with nitric or sulphuric acid, diluted with water, and laid by until a coat of rust is formed upon it, more or less according to the colour The Gun-malter. 157 wanted ; a little oil is then applied, and the surface being rubbed dry, it is polished by means of a hard- brush and bees-wax. The proving of barrels differs in different coun- tries. The English Tower proof, and that of the Whitechapel company, incorporated by charter for proving arms, are made with a ball of the proper calibre, and a charge of powder equal in weight to this ball : the proof is the same for every size and species of barrel, and not repeated. Rifting consists in forming upon the inside of barrels a number of furrows, either in a straight or spiral direction ; into these the ball is moulded, and any rolling motion along the sides of the barrel in its passage out is thereby prevented. This process is supposed to direct the ball more effectually to the object against which it is intended to operate. Bar- rels of this construction have been long in use upon the Continent, but were little known, and still less employed in England till within these fifty years. On the upper surface of the barrel, at right angles with its axis, is fixed a piece of flat thin iron, about six inches from the breech, and on the centre of its top a small square notch is filed ; this is called the back-sight. The front-sight is nothing more than the small iron knot which is fixed on all fowling- pieces about half an inch from the muzzle. When the aim is taken, the eye is raised over the back- sight till the front-sight appears through the notch, which is then brought upon the object. Great care is taken in the manufacture and finish- ing of the gun-lock : it consists of divers parts, such as the cock which holds the flint, the priming-pan to hold a small quantity of powder, which is con- nected by the touch-hole with that in the barrel ; the hammer which covers the priming, and against the upper part of which the flint strikes ; the trigger used to bring the flint and hammer in contact ; and certain springs, as the main-spring, the rear-spring, 158 Book of Trades. &c. which are concealed in the stock, and which are adapted either to hold the cock on the half-cock, whole-cock, or to extricate it at the moment of firing the piece. Improvements upon gun-locks to prevent their going off accidentally, have latterly been made ; and Mr. Manton, of Dorset-street, has obtained a patent for one upon improved principles : but we doubt whether any effectual improvement could be adopt- ed, consistent with the simplicity required in this destructive weapon. The lock is let into the gun-stock, which is uni- formly manufactured from the wood of the walnut- tree, of which the Gun-smith always keeps a large stock, and well seasoned. The gun-stocks are usually made by workmen at their own homes, be- cause one man will fashion gun-stocks sufficient for the wants of several Gun-smiths. Before any of the ]Dieces described are appropria- ted for service, it is necessary, as we have already observed, that each barrel should undergo a parti- cular trial of its soundness, to be made by or before a person authorized for the purpose, called the Proof-master. Gun-flints are made in large quantities, both in France and England, from the nodules of flint found in various places, particularly in chalk districts. The whole operation of making a gun-flint is per- formed in less than one minute. A good workman is able to manufacture a thousand good chips, or scales, in a day, if the flint nodules be of a good quality : and in the same manner he can fashion five hundred gun-flints in a day ; so that in the space of three days he is able to cleave and finish a thousand gun-flints without farther assistance. The gun-flints are sorted out according to their perfection. They are classed into extra and common flints ; flints for pistols, muskets, and fowling-pieces. Tlie Hair Dresser. THE HAIR-DRESSER. The Hair-dresser cuts and dresses ladies' and gentlemen's hair; he also makes wigs and braids, and in most cases the business includes the art of shaving. The fashion of wearing wigs and false hair is not peculiar to modern times ; it was common to the Greeks and Romans. The peruke of the Emperor Commodus, is described as having been powdered with scrapings of gold, which were made to adhere to the hair by means of glutinous perfumes. Perukes, in their present form, were introduced mto Paris in the year 1629, whence they have spread by degrees through the rest of Europe. At first it was reputed a scandal for young people to wear wigs, because the loss of their hair, at that age, was attributed to a disease which was of itself dis- graceful. The custom of wearing the beard in its natural state, of giving it a certain form, or of shaving it off entirely, has varied a good deal ; these customs have been among some nations, formerly, subjects of war and of revolt. The inconvenience of wearing the beard, no doubt, caused many people to shave themselves. Plutarch informs us that Alexander ordered the Macedonians to be shaved, that their enemies might not lay hold of them by the beard. According to Varro, it was Menas, on his return from Sicily, who first brought to Rome a certain 160 Book of Trades. number of Barbers, These Barbers did not exer- cise their trade in shops, but shaved at the corners of the streets, or wherever they might happen to be. Juhan the Apostate drove the Barbers from his court, but Scipio Africanus introduced the fashion of shaving every day. We are told that the young men of Rome, when their beards were first cut off, made visits with great ceremony. The beard was inclosed in a box of gold or silver, and consecrated to some Divinity, chiefly to Jupiter Capitolinus. In short, the ancients in wearing or in cutting off the beard, do not appear to have been less capricious than the moderns have been in the manner of wear- ing their hair. Wigs and other ornamental decorations made of hair are now become so common, that there are few ladies, notwithstanding they possess the most beau- tiful hair, who will not wear a manufactured article in preference to their own hair, under the impression that they can improve nature, and add to their charms. Hence, we sometimes see a fair skin and light eyes decorated with black hair; and a dark complexion with black sparkling eyes, set off with flaxen locks. Such is the fashion at the commence- ment of the nineteenth century ; it is, however, but justice to say, that to this mistaken attempt at beauty there are many exceptions. The Hair-Dresser who is represented in the plate engaged in his profession, requires a pair of scissars, combs, a pair of curling-irons, some powder and pomatum, as well as razors, and a strap and hone ; all things too well known to stand in need of des- cription. The principal requisites in a Hair-Dresser, are a light hand, an aptness in catching the changing fashions of the times, and a taste to improve upon them. Perukes or wigs are less in fashion among gentle- men than they were formerly, but, perhaps, they The Hair-dresser. 161 were never more common among the fair sex than at present, and if we may judge from the splendid ap- pearance of many shops in which ladies' wigs, braids, and curls are manufactured, no business is more flourishing or more profitable. Hair makes a very considerable article in com- merce. The merit of good hair consists in its being well fed, and neither too coarse nor too slender ; the largeness rendering it less susceptible of the artificial curl, and the smallness making its curl of too short duration. There is no certain price for hair, but it is sold from five shillings to five pounds per ounce, accord- ing to its colour. Hair which does not curl naturally is brought to it by boihng and by baking in the following manner : after having sorted the hair, it is rolled up, and afterwards fastened upon little cylindrical instru- ments, either of wood or earthenware, called pipes ; in which state it is put into a vessel over the fire and boiled about two hours ; it is then taken out and dried, and sent to be baked in an oven. Hair thus prepared is woven on strong thread which is sewed on a cawl, fitted to the head for a peruke. Formerly peruke-makers made no difference be- tween the ends of the hair, but curled and wove them by either indifferently ; but it is now known that hair to curl well must be woven by the end which grows next to the head. Perukes much worn may, with attention, be made to look very smart, so long as they are kept from the wet. The operation of shaving, which is another part of the Hair-Dresser's business, stands in need of no description ; the great art depends on a light hand and a good razor. Mr. Nicholson, in an early volume of his Chemical Journal, has favoured us with a scientific account of I 162 Book of Trades. this business, to which we refer with pecuhar plea- sure, as it shews that nothing ought to be beneath the attention of a man of science. The business was of much more importance than it now is, previously to the year 1795. In that year an annual tax of one guinea w^as laid upon all per- sons v/ho should in future wear hair powder : this very much injured the trade; the following year, and also the year 1799, were seasons of uncommon scarcity with regard to wheat, from which hair-pow- der is manufactured : these circumstances produced a revolution in the trade ; the wearing of hair-pow- der was nearly abandoned, and still continues out of fashion. Journeymen Hair-Dressers earn from fifteen shil- lings to a guinea per w eek ; but those who work on wig-making and working of hair, w^ill, if very expert, aarn much more th^u this. THE HATTER. Some kind of covering for the head, either for de- fence or ornament, appears to have been generally worn in all ages and countries where the inhabitants have made any progress in the arts of civilized life. Herodotus, indeed, states that the Egyptians were accustomed to appear bare-headed, but this asser- tion must be considered subject to limitation, proba- bly comprising only some of the poorer classes, as from other documents it appears they were no stran- gers to this article of dress ; and it is well known that a crown was the sign of royal authority. The form, substance, and colour of head-dresses have been exceedingly various, according to the dif- ferent circumstances or humours of the w^earer. The Persians wore turbans, and other nations inha- biting the Indian Peninsula wore a kind of covering for the head, which, like the thatch of ^a lowly cot- tage, seemed calculated to divest the building of all proportion. The imperial turban is said to have been composed of almost a whole bale of muslin, variously twisted and formed : the ministerial turban was smaller, but of superior height. From the Per- sians the Jews borrowed those large turbans which adorned their, elders, doctors, and scribes. The mitre of the priests was their own. Several of their tribes adopted the caps which the Romans were ac- customed to give to their slaves on their being given their liberty : hence, in numerous instances, the cap has been a symbol of liberty. 164^ Book of Trades. The ancient helmets were a substitute for hats, made of steel, brass, and sometimes more costly metals. In our own country, Stowe informs us that the English used to ride, and go winter and summer in knit caps and cloth hoods ; and the best sort in silk thrummed hats. Head-dresses, from their variety, simplicity, and mutabihty, had hitherto been an object of little re- gard in a manufacturing or commercial point of view. The introduction of felt hats has occasioned a uniformity and extent to this article of dress, un- known to former ages, and has proved of consider- able importance to the manufacturer and the trades- man. Curiosity is naturally excited to become ac- quainted with the particulars respecting their inven- tion, but the the operation of individual interest in this, as \n numerous other instances connected with the arts, seems to have buried it in obscurity, and little information on the subject can now be obtained. Passing* over the story about St. Clement, the fourth bishop of Rome, and some other idle tales of the dark ages, it appears that felt hats were in- vented at Paris by a Swiss, about the commence- ment of the fifteenth century. They were not gene* rally known till Charles the Seventh made his tri- umphant entry into Rouen, in the year 1449, when from F. Daniel's account of that entry, it appears lie astonished the whole city by appearing in a hat lined with red silk, and surmounted by a plume of feathers ; from this entry their general use is dated. How far the manufacture of hats was practised on the Continent before they were made in England we cannot say, but we learn that in the beginning of the reign of Henry the Eighth, Spanish felt hats were made in England by Spaniards and Dutchmen. In the second year of James the First, the felt- makers of London obtained a corporation, and hired a hall near Christ-Church, the king granting them various privileges and liberties. The Hatter. 165 England is now become the grand mart for the manufacture of hats ; and hence the article is ex- ported to the Continent, America, and various other parts of the globe : our laws prohibit the introduc- tion of foreign hats, to encourage, of course, our domestic manufacture. The materials in general use for hat-making, are lambs'-wool, rabbits' and hares' fur, beaver, seal- wool, monkey-stuff, or neuter-wool, camels'-hair, goats'-hair, or estridge silk, and cotton. The best fur is from the backs of the different animals ; it decreases in value as it approaches the belly. As the process is nearly the same in all, it will be sufficient if we describe the method made use of in the manufacture of beaver hats. The skin of the beaver is covered with two kinds of hair ; the one long, stiff, and glossy ; the other is short, thick-set, and soft, and is used alone for hats. To tear off these kinds of hair and cut the other, women are employed, who make use of two knives : a large one, something like a shoe-maker's knife, for the long hair, and a smaller one, nearly in the form of a pruning-knife, with which they shave or scrape off the shorter hair. Experience has shewn that the hair of fur cannot be evenly and well fitted together unless all the fibres be first separated, or put into the same state with regard to each other. This is the object of the first process of hat-making, and is called bowing. The materia] is laid upon a platform of wood or wire, about four feet square, called a hurdle, which is fixed against the wall of the work-shop, and is enlightened by a small window, and separated by two side partitions from other hurdles which occupy the rest of the space along the wall. The hurdle, if of wood, is made of deal-boards not quite three inches wide, disposed parallel to the wall, and at the distance of one-fortieth of an inch from one another, for the purpose of suffering the dust and other im- 166 Book of Trades. purities of the stuff to pass through ; a purpose still more effectually answered by a hurdle of wire. The workman is provided with a bow, a bow-pin, and a basket, and several cloths. The bow is a pole of yellow deal, or ash, about seven feet long, to which are fixed two bridges, somewhat like that which re- ceives the hair in the bow of the violin. Over these is stretched a cat-gut about one-twelfth of an inch in thickness. The bow-pin is a stick with a knot, and is used for plucking the bow-string. The basket is a square piece of ozier-work, consisting of open straight bars, with no crossing or interweaving; its length across the bars is two feet, and its breadth eighteen inches. The sides into which the bars are fixed are slightly bent into a circular curve, so that the basket may be set upright on one of these edges near the right-hand end of the hurdle, where it usually stands. The cloths are linen* Besides these implements, the w^orkman is also provided with brown paper. The boiving commences by shovelling the material towards the right-hand partition with the basket, upon which the workman holding the bow horizon- tally in his left hand, and the bow-pin in his right, lightly places the bow-string, and gives it a pluck with the pin. The string, in its return, strikes upon the fur, and causes it to spring up in the air, and fly partly across the hurdle in a light open form. By repeated strokes the whole is thus subjected to the bow ; and this beating is repeated till all the original clots, or filaments, are perfectly opened and dilated, and having thus fallen together in all possi- ble directions, form a thin mass or substance for the felt. The quantity thus treated at once, is called a batty and never exceeds half the quantity required to make one hat. When the batt is sufficiently bowed, it is ready for hardening ; which term denotes the first commence- ment of felting. The prepared material being The Hatter. 167 evenly disposed on the hurdle, is first pressed down by the convex side of the basket, then cover- ed with a cloth and pressed backwards and forwards successively in its various parts by the hand of the workman. By this process the hairs are twisted together, and the lamelte of each hair, by fixing themselves to other hairs, which happen to be di- rected the contrary way, keep the whole in a com- pact state. When the felt is thus managed the cloth is taken ofT; and a sheet of paper with its corners doubled in, so as to give it a triangular outline, is laid upon the batt, which last is folded over the paper as it lies, and its edges meeting one over the other, form a conical cap. The joining is soon made good by pressure with the hands on the cloth. Another batt, ready hardened, is in the next place laid on the hurdle, and the cap, here mentioned, placed upon it with the joining downwards. This last batt being also folded up, will, consequently, have its place of junction diametrically opposite to that of the inner felt, w^hich it must therefore greatly tend to strengthen. The principal part of the intended hat is thus put together ; and now requires to be worked with the hands a considerable time upon the hurdle, the cloth being also occasionally sprinkled with clear water. During the whole of this operation, which is called basoning, the felt becomes firmer and firmer, and contracts in its dimensions. It may be easily under- stood that the chief use of the paper is to prevent the sides from felting together. A superior method is said to be, that after the bovving, and previous to the basoning, a hardening skin of leather, alumed, or half-tanned, should be used instead of the cloth, and pressed upon the batt, to bring it by an easier gra- dation to a compact appearance. This operation of basoning derives its name from the process of work- ing being the same as that practised on a wool-hat 168 Booh of Trades. after bowing ; the last being done upon a piece of cast-metal, three feet across, of a circular shape, called a bason; the joining of each batt is made good here by the motion of the hand, that is, by rubbing the edges of each batt, folded over the other, to excite the progressive action of the filaments in felting, and to join the two together. The basoning is followed by a still more eftectual continuation of the felting, called working. This is done at an apparatus called the batter?/^ (see the back part of the plate,) consisting of a kettle con- taining water slightly accidulated with sulphuric acid, to which, for beaver-hats, a quantity of wine- lees, or the grounds of beer are added, or else plain water for rinsing out, and eight planks of wood joined together in the form of a frustrum of a cone, and meeting in the kettle at the middle. The outer or upper edge of each plank is about two feet broad, and rises a little more than two feet and a half above the ground ; the slope towards the kettle is considerably rapid, so that the whole battery is little more, than six feet in diameter. The quantity of sulphuric acid added to the liquor is not sufiicient to give a sour taste, but only renders it rough to the tongue. In this liquor, heated rather higher than unpractised hands could bear, the felt is dipped from time to time, and worked on the planks ; be- fore which it is plunged gently into the boiling kettle till fully saturated with the liquor, which is called soa/ang. The imperfections of the felt pre- sent themselves in the course of this part of the work to the eye of the w^orkman, who picks out knots and other hard substances with a bodkin, and adds more fur upon all such parts as require strength- ening. The added fur is patted down with a wet brush, and soon incorporates with the rest. Many Hatters, to hurry this work, use a quantity of sul- phuric acid, and then to make the nap rise and flow, they kill or neutralize the acid, and open the body The Hatter. 169 again by throwing in a handful of oatmeal ; by this means they expedite their work, but at the same time they leave it quite grainy from the w^ant of labour. This, in handling the dry grey hat, when made, may be in part discovered. The beaver for the nap is laid on towards the conclusion of this kind of work- ing. The hat now possesses the form of a cone, and the several actions which it has undergone, have converted it into a soft flexible felt, capable of being extended, though with some difficulty, in any or every direction ; therefore, the next thing to be done is to give it the form required by the wearer. For this purpose, the workman turns up the edge or brim, to the depth of about an inch and a half, and then returns the point back again through the cen- tre or axis of the cap, so far as not to take out this fold of tlie same depth. The point being returned back again in the same manner, produces a third fold, and thus the workman proceeds until the whole has acquired the appearance of a flat, circular piece, consisting of a number of concentric undulations, rings, or folds, with the point in the centre. This is laid upon the plank, v/here the workman, keeping it wet with the liquor, pulls out the point with his fingers and presses it down with his hand, at the same time turning it round on its centre in contact with the plank, till he has by this means rubbed out a flat portion equal to the intended crow^n of the hat. In the next place he takes a block, to tlie crown of which he applies the flat central portion of the felt, and by forcing down a string from the sides of the block, causes the next part to assume the figure of the crown, which he continues to wet and work until it has properly disposed itself round the block. The brim now appears like a flounced or puckered appendage round the edge of the crown ; but the block being set vipright on the plank, the requisite form is soon given by w^orking, rubbing, and extending this part. Water only is used in the I 170 BooJc of Trades. operation of fashioning or blocking ; at the conclu- sion of which it is pressed out by the blunt edge of the copper implement used for that purpose, called a stamper. Previous to the dyeing, the nap of the hat is raised or loosened out with a wire-brush, or carding instrument. The fibres are too rotten after the dye- ing to bear this operation. The dyeing materials are logwood, a little oak bark, and a mixture of the sulphates of iron and of copper, commonly known under the names of green copperass, and blue vitriol. The hats are boiled with log^vood in water, and afterwards immersed in the saline solution. The dyed hats are, in the next place, taken to the stiffen- ing shop. One w^orkman, assisted by a boy, does this part of the business. He has two vessels, or boilers, one containing the grounds of strong beer, and the other containing glue dissolved in water, a little thinner than that w hich is used by carpenters. The beer-grounds are applied in the inside of the crow^n, to prevent the glue from coming through to the face, and also to give the requisite firmness at a less expence than could be produced by the glue alone. Were the glue to pass through the hat in different places, it would be more difficult to pro- duce an even gloss upon the face in the subsequent finishing. The glue is therefore applied after the beer grounds are dried, and then only upon the low^erface of the brim, and the inside of the crown. For this purpose the hat is put into another hat, called a stiffening hat, the crown of which is notch- ed, or slit open in various directions. These are then yjlaced in a hole in a deal-board, which sup- ports the brim, and the glue is applied with a brush. In France, however, they use wine-lees instead of beer-grounds, and gum-water instead of glue. The dry hat, after this operation, is always rigid, and its figure irregular. The last dressing is given by the application of moisture and heat, and the use The Hatter. 171 of the brush, and a hot iron as before mentioned, somewhat in the shape of that used by tailors, but shorter and broader on the face. The hat being softened by exposure to steam, is drawn upon a block, to which it is securely apphed by the former method of forcino- a strinor down from the crown to the commencement of the brim. The judgment of the workman is employed in moistening, brushing, and ironing the hat, in order to give and preserve the ptoper figure ; (see the front part of the plate) when the brim of the hat is not intended to be of an equal width throughout, as is sometimes the case for military hats, it is cut by means of a wooden or metalic pattern. The contrivance for cutting them round is very ingenious and simple. A number of notches are made in one edge of a flat piece of wood, for the purpose of inserting the point of a knife, and from one side or edge of this piece of wood there proceeds a straight handle, which lies parallel to the notched side, forming an angle somewhat like that of a carpenter's square. When the legs of this angle are applied to the outside of the crown, and the board lies flat on the brim of the hat, the notched edge will lie nearly in the direction of the radius, or line pointing to the centre of the hat. A knife being therefore inserted in one of the notches, it is easy to draw it round by leaning the tool against the crown, and it will cut the brim very regular and true. This cut is made before the hat is quite finished, and is carried entirely through ; so that one of the last operations consists in tearing off the re- dundant part, which by that means leaves an edging of beaver round the external face. When the hat is completely finished, the crown is tied up in gauze paper, which is neatly ironed down. It is then ready for the subsequent operations of lining, &;c, for sale. These hats are, in the trade, commonly called stuff-hats; another kind much in wear, but of course i2 172 Book of Trades. inferior in quality, are called plate-hats : they con- sist, in the interior, of wool, and are merely covered with a better material on the outside. The com- monest hats of all are called cordies; they are made wholly of wool, or some such coarse material. Ano- ther kind of hats is latterly got up in the trade, called castor-hats, but we believe this is only a name adopted to set off the article, rather than as convey- ing the quality absolutely designed by the term, castor being merely the Latin word for the beaver. Silk hats have also within these few years come into wear. They are formed of a stout oil-case, and the fine pile of the silk is fixed by some process of glueing, or gumming, on the outside. They are very neat, and have the advantage of being water- proof, but the silk, without great care, soon wears off, and the hat immediately loses its beauty. Hats of the finest quality are made in large quan- tities in London, and also at some of our provincial towns : but the cordies are made in vast quantities at, and in the neighbourhood of Bristol, as well as plate and castor hats. The cordies form a regular article of exchange with the London manufacturers for their stuff goods. Hats are worn of various colours, but those most in use at present, are black, drab, and white. The white have a nap of rabbits'-fur, selected from the skins. Drab hats are made of stuffs of a natural colour selected for the purpose. The master Hat-maker employs frequently a large capital, and numerous hands. The journeyman's earnings are good; but we fear, as in numerous other trades, that his habits are not calculated to induce him to make the most of them. The Iron Founder, THE IRON-FOUNDER. The art of founding in metal, or of melting it and forming it into various shapes, now occupies a space in our wants, which entitles it to considerable atten- tion. If the Greeks, and after them the Romans, per- fected it as far as refers to casting in brass and bronze, we have extended it more than they did, in- asmuch as we have turned it to all the great features of general utility. Iron is the staple commodity in the modern foun- dery. The great abundance of this metal, with its consequent cheapness, together with the develope- ments of chemistry, have, amongst us, opened to it a field, and created for it a demand, the extent of which is at present absolutely incalculable. It is generally believed that cannon have been made use of in Europe ever since the year 1338, and that they were employed for naval purposes in the Baltic Sea, in 1350 ; at any rate, it is certain that they v/ere used by the Venetians in 1366, at the siege of Claudia Jessa. Lamey ascribes the inven- tion of brass cannon to J. Owen; he asserts there, were none such known in England till the year 1 535, and that iron cannon were for the first time cast in this country, in 1547. Specimens of great guns, as they were first used, and before the casting of them in founderies came into use, are still to be seen in i3 174 Book of Trades. many parts of Europe, and some also in the Tower of London, and at Woolwich. The uses to which cast-iron was applied, pre- viously to the last century, are, comparatively, of trivial importance : it now enters more or less into the materials of almost every manufactory, forming wheels, cylinders, pipes, arches, grates, stoves, and innumerable other appendages and implements, without which, the mechanic would be almost un- done, and the domestic concerns of mankind would suffer considerable disadvantage and inconvenience. If value be estimated by utility, iron is, unquestion- ably, the most valuable of the metals, for in addi- tion to its use in the various arts of life, it is per- fectly harmless in its effects upon the human consti- tution, when taken either in its crude state, or in the form of oxide, or rust, unless in immoderate quantity ; a quality which few if any of the other common metals possess. Iron is employed in three states, each having pe- culiar properties, by which it is applicable to various purposes : the first is cast-iron, the second wrought ^ or malleable iron, and the third is called steel. Our business, at present, is with the cast-iron manufactory, of which we have a representation in the plate; the Founder has just taken from the furnace a ladle full of liquid metal, with which he is going to cast, perhaps the front of a stove, or some other article, the form of which is moulded out in stiff sand. It will be readily conceived that this business requires great strength, and a constitution that will bear a vast degree of heat. Iron is dug out of the earth in the form of stones, and in this state it is called ore. The richest ores, that is, those which yield most pure metal, are heavy, and of a brownish colour, inclining to red. Before the metal is extracted, the ore is sometimes roasted, or calcined ; this is done by a different pro- cess, in different places : at the iron works in Staf- The Iron-founder. 175 fordshire, after the ore is dug, they calcine it in the open air, with small charcoal, wood, or sea-coal, in order to break it in small pieces. This process re- quires three days. But at the Forest of Dean, in Gloucestershire, the ore is calcined in kilns, made like common Hme-kilns : these are filled up to the top with coal and ore, one layer vipon another, alter- nately ; and then setting fire to the bottom layer of coal, it burns till the coal is wasted away. By these means the ore becomes brittle, but the metal is not fused. It is now taken to the furnace to be melted, or, as it is usually termed, to be smelted; that is, to ex- tract the metal from the dross. The furnace, such as is represented in the plate, is built of brick, and is about twenty-four feet square on the outside, and near thirty feet in height within : the middle or widest part of which is not above eight or ten feet, the top and bottom being brought into a narrow compass, something like the shape of an egg. Behind the furnace are fixed two pairs of bellows, which are worked by means of a water- wheel ; and they are contrived so as to play alter- nately, the one giving its blast whilst the other is rising. But in many founderies, the bellows used are constructed after Mr. Wilkinson's plan, by which a regular and uniform blast is continually produeedc Holes are left in the furnace, which may be opened at any time to take away the scorise, or dross, or to permit the metal to flow out. The furnace is filled with ore and charcoal, or coke; when coke is used, limestone is added, to pro- mote more effectually the reduction of the metal, by supplying carbonic acid for that purpose. The ore gradually subsides into the hottest part of the fur- nace, where it is melted, and the metalHc parts be- ing the heaviest, fall to the bottom, where there is a passage made for taking off the scum. As soon as |:here is a sufficient quantity of metal in a complete 176 .Book of Trades, and strong state of fusion, it is let out by a tap-hole into furrows, made in an immense bed of sand, which is prepared before the mouth of the furnace : the large mass w^hich sets in the main furrow, is called by the Founders a sow, and the lesser or side fur- rows are termed pigs of iron. The metal is gene- rally made so hot before it is drawn off, that it will not only run a great distance, but will keep boiling for some time in the sand. For chimney-backs, hearths of ovens, the fronts of stoves, and other small articles, the Founder takes the metal out of the receiver in large ladles, from which he pours it into moulds of fine sand. But for the more intricate cases of Iron-Foundryj, as casting of cylinders for steam engines, or pipes with various branches, moulds are formed of loam or clay, which are made nearly in the same manner as the rnoulding of plaister for busts, &c. When the furnaces are once at work, they keep them constantly employed for many months toge- ther, never suffering the fire to slacken night or day, but still supplying the wasting of the fuel and the ore, by fresh materials poured in at the top. The excessive and long-continued ignition kept in these furnaces, gradually wastes the brick- w^ork, till the sides, which are many feet thick, become unable to sustain the w^eight of the melted metal; so that it has sometimes been known to burst out suddenly in a violent and dreadfully-destructive stream. At certain intervals, therefore, the fire ought to be allowed to go out, whatever may be the expense of rekindling it, in order to examine and repair the furnace. Three tons of iron are sometimes run off in twenty-four hours, with the application of the bel- lows, whilst the heat without these would scarcely melt a single hundred weight in the same time : indeed, we knew a well-conducted furnace at Red- brook, near Monmouth, where two tons of cast-iron The Iron-founder. 177 were regularly run out into pigs every eleventh hour : the ore in this furnace was reduced entirely by charcoal, and being in small lumps underwent no previous roasting. Cast-iron is now employed in the formation of bridges of great extent ; in roofs, and the girders, and joists in buildings, as well as the sash-frames, and sashes. It has also been used with success in wheels and other machinery to our steam-engines. Birmingham and its neighbourhood is the great entrepot for works of all kind in iron. The Soho of Messrs. Boulton and Watt, near that town, is of known celebrity. And the Colebrook-dale Company, in Shropshire, have long been famous for a variety of cast-iron materials for building both housed and bridges. The Carron Iron-works in Scotland are also well known : the guns known in war under the name of carronades, derive their name from this last foundery ; for the mode of casting which, as well as cannon generally, we refer to more voluminous writ- ings, merely adding that cannon are always cast with a large cap at their muzzle, which was origi- nally cut off with a saw, but now a machine is used for the purpose, which a man works by turning a lathe, and as the turning goes on the turner uses a chisel, with which he cuts into the gun to about one inch and a half deep. The cap so cut is broken off by being hammered. I THE JEWELLER. It appears from history that the profession of a Jeweller is of very ancient date : for we read in the Bible that Aaron had a breast-plate set with a variety of precious stones ; and in succeeding ages there is frequent mention of rings and other orna- ments being made of gold and set with stones. Hence the name Jeweller, one who sets jewels or precious stones, is properly derived. There is scarcely a nation in the world who has not employed Jewellers of some kind or another. Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, is said, as a proof of her extravagance, in one of her feasts which she gave to Mark Antony, to have melted pearls into her dHnk. When Captain Cook visited the South Sea Islands, where perhaps no civilized being had been before, he found the natives with their ears, noses, and arms ornamented with pearls, gold, shells, and curious teeth of fish in a fanciful manner. Civilized countries have greatly improved the art of Jewellery. The French for lightness and ele- gance of design have surpassed their neighbours ; but the English Jewellers for excellence of work- manship have been, and still are superior to every other nation. The name Jeweller is now commonly applied to all who set stones, whether real or arti- ficial; but properly speaking it belongs only to those who set diamonds and other precious gems. According to the general application of the term, Jewellers make rings of all sorts in gold; lockets, The Jeweller, The Jeweller. 179 bracelets, broaches, ornaments for the head, ear- rings, necklaces, and a great variety of trinkets composed of diamonds, pearls, or other stones. The diamond was called by the ancients adamant : as a precious stone, it holds the first rank in value, hardness, and lustre, of all gems. The goodness of diamonds consists in their icater or colour, lustre, and weight. The most perfect colour is white, or rather a clear crystaUine quality, which admits the rays of light very readily. The defects in diamonds are veins, flaws, specks of red and black sand, and a blueish or yellow cast. In Europe lapidaries examine the goodness of their diamonds by day-light, but in the Indies they do it by night : for this purpose a hole is made in the wall, where a lamp is placed with a thick wick, by the light of which they judge of the goodness of the stone. Diamonds are found in the East Indies ; princi- pally in the kingdoms of Golconda, Visapour, Ben- gal, and the island of Borneo. We likewise get them from Brazil ; but the Brazilian diamonds ap- pear to be of an inferior quality : they are known ^ in commerce by the name of Portuguese diamonds. They are seldom above a certain size. The Indian Monarchs keep up the largest of them, to hinder their price from falling. Diamonds do not display all their lustre immediately after being taken out of the earth ; they are brilliant only when found in water. All that are dug from mines are covered with an earthy crust. They are obtained from both mines and rivers. Modern chemistry has proved, that the diamond can be completely decomposed by heat; in other words, it can be totally destroyed by that agent : its analysis proves it to approach the nearest to pure charcoal, or carbon, of any body yet known. As the diamond is the hardest of all precious stones^ it can only be cut and ground by itself, and I 6 180 Booh of Trades. in its own substance. To bring diamonds to that degree of perfection which augments their price so considerably, the workmen rub several against each other ; and the powder thus rubbed off the stones, and received in a little box for the purpose, serves to grind and polish others. The pearl is a hard, white, smooth, shining body, found in shell-fish resembUng an oyster, and is ranked among the gems. The perfection of pearls, whatever be their shape, consists chiefly in the lus- tre and clearness of their colour, which Jewellers call their water. Those which are white are most esteemed in Europe ; wliile many Indians, and the Arabs, prefer the yellow : some are of a lead-colour, some border on the black, and some are quite black. The Oriental pearls are the finest, on account of their largeness, colour, and beauty, being generally of a beautiful silver white ; those found in the West- ern Hemisphere are more of a milk-white. In various parts of the East are persons whose employment is to dive for pearls : it appears that the pearls obtained from shell-fish is merely an interior excrescence, arising from the shells being accident- ally wounded : the divers, to increase the number of pearls, are in the habit of making holes in the shells of the fishes which produce them, and re- placing them in the water; when, after a certain time, it is found that pearls are produced. The finest pearls are brought from the East and West Indies : an inferior sort is sometimes met with in the shell-fishes of our own seas, particularly on the coasts of Scotland. In l^MYO^e, pearls and diamonds are sold by carat weight, the carat being equal to four grains ; but in Asia, the weights made use of are different in dif- ferent states. In the print we have a man at work, who will re- present either a jeweller or a small worker in silver; one who makes rings, perfume boxes, &c. The The Jeweller. 181 board at wlilcli he works is adapted also for a second workman. The leathern skins fastened to the board, are to catch the filings, and small pieces 4i of precious metals which would otherwise be liable to fall on the ground. The tools on the board, and in the front under the window, are chiefly files of various kinds, and drills ; beside which there is a small hammer, a pair of pliers, and on a little block of wood, a small crucible. On his left hand, above the board, is a drill-boiv ; this is a flexible instru- ment, consisting of a piece of steel, to the end of which is fastened a cat-gut : the cat-gut is twisted round one of the drills which stand before the man, and then it is fitted for the business. Behind him is fixed the drawing-bench, on v/hich he draws out his wire to any degree of fineness. The method of drawing wire for gold, or other metals, is this: the metal is first made into a cylin- dric form ; when it is drawn through the holes of several irons, each smaller than the other, till it is as fine as it is wanted, sometimes much smaller than a Iiair. Every new hole lessens its diameter : but it gains in length what it loses in thickness; a single ounce is frequently drawn to a length of several thousand feet. In the front of the plate is represented a German stove, which is rarely used for any other purpose than that of heating the shop : for Jewellers cannot work in winter, unless the temperature of the shop be pretty high. At the top of the stove is a crucible, and on the floor is another; these are useful for many pur- poses ; they are not, however, heated in the stove, but in a forge, which is an essential in a Jeweller's shop, though not exhibited in the plate. Another very material tool, found in every Jewel- ler's work-room, is the anvil and block. A Jlatting-mill is also wanted ; and, indeed, can- not be dispensed with, where the business is consi- 18^ Book of Trades. derable. The flattiiig-mill consists of two per- fectly round and very highly polished rollers, formed internally of iron, and welded over with a plate of refined steel ; the circumference of these rollers nearly touch each other ; they are both turned with one handle. The lowermost roller is about ten inches in diameter ; the upper one is much smaller. The wire which is to be flattened, unwinding from a bobbin, and passing through a narrow slit in an upright piece of wood, called a ketch, is directed by a small conical hole in a piece of iron called a guide, to any particular width of the rollers ; some of which, by means of this contrivance, are capable of receiv- ing forty threads. After the wire is flatted it is again wound on a bobbin, which is turned by a wheel fixed on the axis of one of the rollers, and so managed that the motion of the bobbin just keeps pace vvith that of the rollers. Besides those which are already mentioned, Jewellers require a great variety of other tools ; such as gravers, scrapers, spit- stickers, knife-tools, straining-weights, brass-stamps, lamp, and blow- pipe, ring-sizes, spring-tongues, piercing-saws, boil- ing-pans, shears, &c. &c. The trade of a Jev/eller has always been consi- derable in London. The capital required to carry on a business of this kind must be very great ; a single diamond being sometimes valued at twenty thousand pounds: indeed there are a few diamonds in possession of some of tlie Sovereigns of Europe, which are valued at a much larger sum. Some Jewellers will earn as journeyman four guineas a week : but the general run of wages is about twenty eight or thirty shillings. 6 The Lace Maker, THE LACE-MAKER. The Lace-maker is a person, commonly a wo- man, who makes a kind of open net-work of thread, silk, &c. of various widths and fineness, with a variety of figures intermixed, used most commonly for trimmings to ladies' dresses. The origin of the art of Lace-making cannot be distinctly traced ; by some it has been supposed to be the same as that which is called in Latin authors the Phrygian art; but this probably consisted rather in needle-work, than in that sort of netting used in the making of bone-lace. Borders sewed upon cloths and tapestry, which are mentioned by ancient writers, v/ere a kind of lace worked with a needle : this lace is undoubtedly of much older date than that made by netting. Of the former kind much is still extant among old church-furniture, which was probably the w^ork of nuns or ladies of fortune, who devoted their time to the business on religious motives. But if it had been manufactured as an article of commerce, something more would have been found concerning it in cotemporary authors. A lace manufactory w^as established in Paris un- der the auspices of the celebrated Colbert, in the year 1666 ; but this w^as done by the needle, and was similar to what is called point. The Germans, however, claim the honour of having invented the art of Lace-making by means of the cushion and bobbins : they ascribe the inven- 184 Boole of Trades, tion to Barbara, the wife of Christopher Uttman, who died about the year 1575. At this period the mines in Germany were become much less produc- tive than they had been for centuries; the wives and daughters, therefore, of the miners were in- duced to tuiTi their hands to the making of lace, which, ovang to the low price of labour, they were enabled to sell so cheap that it became fashionable, in opposition to the Italian^ lace worked with the needle, and even supplanted it in commerce. The best laces are now made at Mecklin, Brus- sels, and Ghent, Antwerp, and V alenciennes, which still enrich the country around, and induce the farmers to cultivate flax on the poorest soils. In France lace was made formerly in large quantities in the convents. In our own country the manufacture of lace is carried on to a greater extent and perfection in Buckinghamshire than in any other part of the United Kingdom, particularly in the town and neigh- bourhood of Newport-Pagnel, which is a sort of mart for that article, and flourishes considerably by its means. The Lace-maker is represented in the plate busily engaged in her work in the open air, which, even in this country, is no uncommon sight during the summer months. Lace is not woven, and of course it requires in the operation neither warp nor woof. It is made of silk, of thread, or cotton, which is wound on little bobbins made of bone or ivory, about the thickness of a skewer : hence the name bone-lace. The pat- tern to which the lace is made is drawn on paper or parchment, pricked with pin«holes, and then put on the pad or cushion which the woman holds on her knees. All the ends of the threads are first fastened together, and the Lace-maker twists them variously over and under one another round the pins, which are stuck into the holes of the pattern: these pins The Lace-maker. 185 they remove from one part to another, as their work goes on ; and by these means are produced that multipHcity of eyes or openings which give to lace the desired figures. For this operation much art and ingenuity are not necessary : it is, however, very tedious w^ork : and when the thread is fine, and the pattern full and complex, it requires a degree of attention which can be rarely expected in persons of easy circum- stances. Lace-making is therefore consigned to the hands I of indigent women and young girls, who by their skill and dexterity raise the value of materials, ori- ginally little worth, to almost any sum. But the time required to accomplish this beautiful manufac- ture is always in proportion to the value of the work ; so that after all little money is earned in the business. This is the usual method in which lace has been made in this country as well as on the Continent : but within these few years a considerable revolution in the manufacture of lace has been gradually taking place. Cotton has been spun of so neat and fine a tex- ture, that the use of it, even in the making of bone- lace, has completely in England superseded the use of flax ; and great quantities of cotton finely spun are exported continually for the making of lace abroad, although we are not prepared to say that on the Continent cotton has wholly superseded the use of flax. But a more important alteration has taken place in Lace-making by substituting the loom: at Not- tingham, and some other places, is now manufac- tured a lace of finer quality, more even in its tex- ture, and considerably more elegant in its appear- ance than any bone-lace w^hatever, and at about one-third the price of bone-lace. This lace is made of two kinds : the coarsest is 186: Book of Trades. called Meckltn-net ; the other bobbin-net, because it is woven by bobbins in some such' way as the bone-lace is made, and for which we believe a patent was obtained. Not only lace, but veils, cloaks, and handkerchiefs are made in this way, both of silk and cotton: the only inconvenience attending this mode of manufacture is, that the figures in the lace must be fixed by hand after the lace is woven: but notwithstanding this defect, the introduction of this method has considerably reduced the demand for bone-lace. All these laces made by the loom are in the trade contradistinguished by the name of British lace, particularly that made of blacjc silk, a lace which has lately most unaccountably gone a good deal out of fashion. The Ladies' Dress Maker. THE LADIES' DRESS-MAKER. Under this head we shall include not only the business of a Mantua-maker, but also of a Milliner : for, although in London these two parts of in fact the same trade are frequently separate, they are not always so, and in the country they are very com- monly united. The history of dress would be as voluminous as the history of mankind : dress is a thing subject to almost daily fluctuation, so that a history of the ladies' dresses in England for merely half a dozen years would furnish matter for a bulky volume ; we shall therefore not attempt it, but merely observe that the best and perhaps the only excuse for such continual change in the empire of dress, is the op- portunity which that change offers of employment to those persons who would otherwise have no im- mediate claim upon the rich and opulent; and thus what would be retained in their coffers is now scattered in a variety of ways amongst the com- munity in the purchase of luxurious dress, and in the alterations which fashion is continually intro- ducing. In the Milliner taste and fancy are required, with a quickness in discerning, imitating, and improving upon various fashions, which are perpetually chang- ing among the higher circles. *S'//^^ and Satins, of various sorts, are much used in this business ; which were formerly imported into 188 Book of Trades. this country, but now are manufactured in great perfection in Spitalfields and its neighbourhood. Game is a very thin, slight, transparent kind of stuff, woven sometimes of silk, and sometimes only of thread. Crape is a very light transparent stuff ; in some respects like gauze: but it is made of raw silk, gummed and twisted on the mill, and woven without crossing. It is used for mourning, and is now a very fashionable article in court dresses. Spangles are small, thin, round leaves of metal, pierced in the middle, which are sewed on as orna- ments to dress. Artificial Flowers are made sometimes of very fine coloured paper, sometimes of the inside linings upon which the silk-worm spins its silk, but prin- cipally of cambric, which is a kind of linen made of flax, and was first manufactured at Cambray in France, whence its name. Ribbands used by the Milliners are woven : of these there are different sorts, distinguished by different names ; as the Ckina, the sarcenet ^ and the satin. Muffs and fur-tippets are sold by the Milliner ; but the manufacture of them from the skin is a dis- tinct business. Velvet is also used by Milliners, and is now much in fashion : it is a sort of stuff or silk ; the nap of which is formed of part of the threads of the warp, which the workman puts on a channeled ruler, and then cuts by drawing a sharp steel tool along the channel of the ruler to the end of the warp. Muslin is a fine sort of cloth wholly made of cot- ton, so named from the circumstance of having a downy nap on its surface, resembling moss, which in French is called tnousse. The Ladies' Dress-maker's customers are not always easily pleased ; they frequently expect more from their dress than it is capable of giving, The Ladies' Dress-maker. 1S9 Dress," says Mr. Addison, is grown of univer- sal use in the conduct of life. Civilities and respect are only paid to appearance. It is a varnish that gives a lustre to every action, that introduces us into all polite assemblies, and the only certain method of making most of the youth of our nation conspicuous : hence Milton asserts of the fair sex, * Of outward form Elaborate, of inward less exact/ A lady of genius will give a genteel air to her whole dress by a well-fancied suit of knots, as a judicious writer gives a spirit to a whole sentence by a single expression." The Dress-maker must be an expert anatomist ; and must if judiciously chosen have a name of French termination; she must know how to hide all defects in the proportions of the body, and must be able to mould the shape by the stays, that, while she cor- rects the body, she may not interfere with the plea- sures of the palate. The business of a Ladies' Dress-maker and Mil- liner, when conducted upon a large scale and in a fashionable situation, is very profitable ; but the mere work-women do not get any thing at all ade- quate to their labour. They are frequently ob- Hged to sit up very late, and the recompense for extra work is in general a poor remuneration for the time spent. The plate represents the Dress-maker taking the pattern off from a lady by means of a piece of paper or cloth : the pattern, if taken in cloth, becomes afterwards the lining of the dress. THE LINEN-DRAPER, The Linen-draper sells cloths which are made of flax and hemp ; as Irish linens, Russia towelling, Cambrics, &c. and also shawls, printed calicoes, muslin, &c. &c. This business must have been in a great degree co-eval with the subdivision of labour, arising from civilization, modified of course by a variety of cir- cumstances. In London it is in the number of its articles much more circumscribed than it is in the country. Linen-drapers frequently in the country combining with their trade that of a Silk-mercer, whereas in London these two trades are wholly distinct. The Linen-draper is now comprehended under two, or at most three ♦distinct branches. We have the Linen-merchant^ a person w^liose more imme- diate province it is to import articles of linen manu- facture from foreign countries, such as Irish cloths from Ireland, a variety of cloths made of hemp and. flax, from Russia, Ticklenburghs, &c. from Ger- many ; and nankins, calicoes, muslins, &c. from the East Indies. We have also the wholesale Linen-Draper ; a person whose business is to purchase linens from the merchant, and muslins, calicoes, printed-cottons, &c. from the different manufacturers in Manches- ter, Blackburn, Paisley, &c. and to sell them to the retail Linen-drapers throughout the kingdom, as well as frequently for exportation. For this pur- The Linen Draper, The Linen-draper. 191 pose the wholesale Linen-draper generally keeps one or two or more persons constantly travelling throughout the country with patterns of his various articles, by which means the retail dealer has an opportunity of choosing his goods without the ex- pensive and troublesome process of a journey to London, or some other great market for that pur- pose. The business now done, or rather which lately was done in this v/ay, is beyond all precedent or calculation. The most striking part, however, is the retail Linen-draper. We believe there is no trade in England in which more efforts are made to capti- vate the public, and more especially the ladies, by a display of goods ; and in London this display is carried to a most costly and sumptuous extent. In most of the principal streets of the metropolis, shawls, muslins, pieces of ladies' dresses, and a variety of other goods, are shown with the assis- tance of mirrors, and at night by chandeliers, aided by the brilliancy which the gas-lights afford, in a way almost as dazzling to a stranger as many of those poetical fictions of which we read in the Arabian nights' entertainment. If some years ago our neighbours in sneer called us a nation of shopkeepers, we think that they must now give us the credit of being shopkeepers of taste : we apprehend no place in the w^orld affords so great a variety of elegant amusement to the eye as London in its various shops, and amongst these those of the Linen-drapers are at all times con- spicuous. One of the principal things in this trade, in order to be able to carry it on w^ith success, is a knowledge of the best markets for purchasing the different articles of which a Linen-draper's shop is made up; it may seem that immediate application to the fountain head, the manufacturers in various parts of the country, w^ould be the best ; but expe- 192 Book of Trades* rience has frequently decided otherwise ; and it is now well known that from a variety of circum- stances linen and cotton goods can be often pur- chased in London cheaper than of the manufac- turers themselves. The truth perhaps is, that the greatest quantity of floating capital is always to be found in the metropolis^ and therefore the manu- facturer will send his goods to that market, where they will be sure to obtain a ready sale, and that too generally for prompt payment, or for bills at a short date. Large sales, therefore, of muslin, calicoes, &c, are in London numerous, and the capitalist is generally sure of purchasing well. Hence it in general happens that no wholesale Linen-draper, residing in any other part of the em- pire, can effectually compete with the London houses ; and this has been particularly the case for some years past, owing to the peculiarly depressed state of trade. At Ma7/c/^ 196 Book of Trades. out the rain and weather, it does not appear that they ever employed it as mirrors. In the thirteenth century, the Venetians were the only people who had the art of making looking- glasses of crystal. The great glass works at Murano, in the neighbourhood of Venice, furnished all Europe for centuries with the finest glasses that were made. The first plates for looking-glasses were made in England, at Lambeth, in 1673, by the encouragement of the Duke of Buckingham, who in 1670 introduced a few Venetian artists. The polishing of the plates for this business is usually effected hy other hands, before they come to the Looking-Glass Maker, but we can just men- tion that the usual mode of making glass smooth, and in every respect proper to receive the tin-foil and quicksilver, is to use first of all fine sand and water, then emery of different degrees of fineness ; and, lastly, colcothar of vitriol, or as it is more com- monly called, crocus martis, or purple brown. The polishing instrument is a block of wood covered with several folds of cloth and carded wool, so as to make a a fine elastic cushion. This block is worked by the hand ; but to increase the pressure of the polisher, the handle is lengthened by a wooden spring, bent to a bow three or four feet long, which, at the other extremity, rests against a fixed point to a beam placed above. The plate is now fastened to a table with plaister, covered with colcothar, and the polisher begins his operation by working it backwards and forwards over the surface of the plate till one side is done ; then the other is to be pohshed in the same manner. It is well known that glass when smoothed and pohshed does not acquire the property of reflecting objects till it has been silvered, as it is called, an operation effected by means of an amalgam of tin and quicksilver. The tin-leaf, or as it is more com- monly called, tin-foil, which is employed for the The Looking-glass Maker. 197 purpose, must be of the same size as the glass, be- cause, when pieces of that metal are united by means of mercury, they exhibit the appearance of lines. Tin is one of those metallic substances which becomes soonest oxydated by admixture with mer- cury. If there remain a portion of the oxyde of a blackish grey colour on the leaf of tin, it produces a spot or stain in the mirror, and that part cannot re- flect objects presented to it : great care, therefore, must be taken in silvering glass, to remove whatever portion of oxyde there might be from the surface of the amalgam. The process is as follows : the tin-foil is laid on a very smooth stone table, usually prepared for the purpose, with grooves on its edges, or with ledges, to preserve the waste quicksilver, and mercury being poured over the metal, it is extended over the sur- face of it by means of a rubber made of bits of cloth. At the same moment the surface of the tin-foil be- comes covered with blackish oxyde, which must be removed with the rubber. More mercury is then to be poured over the tin, where it remains at a level to the thickness of more than a line, without running off. The glass must be applied in a horizontal di- rection to the table at one of its extremities, and being pushed forwards, it drives before it the oxyde of tin, which is at the surface of the amalgam. A number of leaden weights covered with cloth, are then placed on the glass, which floats on the amal- gam, in order to press it down. Without this pre- caution the glass would exhibit the interstices of the crystals resulting from the amalgam : in this state it is generally suffered to remain several days, till the mixture adheres firmly to the glass. To obtain leaves of tin, which are, sometimes, six or seven feet in length, with a proportionate breadth, they are not rolled, but hammered after the manner of gold-beaters. The prepared tin is first i:^3t between two plates of polished iron, or between k3 198 Book of Trades. two smooth stones, not of a porous nature. Twelve of these plates are placed over each other; and they are then beaten on a stone with heavy ham- mers, one side of which is plain, the other rounded. The plates joined together are first beaten with the latter : when they become extended, the number of plates is doubled, so that they amount sometimes to eighty or more. They are then smoothed with the flat side of the hammer, and are beaten till they acquire the length of six or seven feet, and the breadth of four or five. The small block of tin from which they are formed is at first ten inches long, six in breadth, and a line and a quarter in thickness. When the leaves are of a less extent and thin, from eighty to a hundred of them are smoothed together. This is a trade which is comparatively in very few hands, and is in consequence one of consider- able profit: it is, however, not always carried on alone, but is often combined with that of a carver and gilder ; some cabinet-makers also undertake it. Mechanical Power. THE MACHINIST. If any thing is capable of persuading man that he is of a superior order of being to that of the animals which surround him, it is above all the beauty of his inventions, and the inexhaustible re- sources which he finds in his industry. He is born weak and absolutely naked. His weakness renders him even active and industrious. Upon a contem- plation of his own poverty, he calls into activity all his senses. He applies force to force, opposition to resistance — velocity to weight — and weight to velo- city. By the assistance of Mechanics this little being of five or six feet in height, with two arms, can expedite as much work as a giant whom we might imagine having a thousand. Take Mechanics from man, and you reduce him to barren thought. Me- chanics have done what there is of most beautiful upon the earth. The Machinist, who embodies in his profession the chief principles of Mechanics, and brings them into active use, is the follower of an occupation of very recent introduction amongst the social and useful arts. It is true, we had to a remote period the common smith, the founder, and the carpenter ; and the optician has also been for some time known ; but such has been the rapid improvement in mecha- nical machinery during the last fifty years, that the Machinist was wanting to unite the correct p'eci- K 4 200 Boole of Trades. sion of the finer branches of Mechanics to the prac- tical utilities of the common smith, the carpenter, &c. As the steam-eyigine occupies so conspicuous a portion in this trade, indeed, is the chief moving power in it, we deem it necessary to say, that it is, unquestionably, one of the noblest monuments of human ingenuity. It w^as originally invented by the Marquis of Worcester, in the reign of Charles the Second. This nobleman published, in 1663, a small book called A Century of Inventions," giving an account of a hundred different discoveries or contri- vances of his own ; amongst these is an account of raising water by the force of steam, which, now that we are possessed of the engine, appears to agree very well with its construction. But as there was no plate accompanying his description, we are entirely unac- quainted with the particular niode in which he ap- pHed the power of steam. It does not appear, how- ever, that he met with sufficient encouragement, and this useful discovery w^as long neglected. Towards the end of the seventeenth century, Captain Savary succeeded in constructing a machine of this kind, having probably seen the Marquis of Worcester's account; obtained a patent for the invention, and erected several steam-engines, which he described in a book entitled the Miner's Friend," published in 1696. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, New- comen and Crauly first conceived the project of applying a piston with a lever and other machinery. They were contented to share the profits of the in- vention with Savary, who procured a patent for it in 1705, in which they all three joined. But it was not till 1712, that the difficulties in working it were removed. About 1762, Mr. Watt began to turn his attention to this machine, which he has since brought to so great a degree of perfection. The Machinist. 201 Perhaps we cannot better describe the trade of a Machinist than in enumerating some of the most important articles which he manufactures, which are, machinery constructed and manufactured for expe rimental and scientific elucidation, steam-engines, both of condensing and high pressure, to any re- quired power. Digesters, chemical apparatus, phi- losophical and gas-light machines ; conductors for protecting buildings and shipping from lightning. Pumps, both atmospheric and forcing, machines for soda and artificial waters; syphons, air and fluid cocks ; exhausting and condensing syringes ; gar- den engines, fountains, hydrostatic engines, and hydro-mechanical presses, cutting engines for screws, wheels, cylinders, and boring bars, stamping and cutting presses with dies and punches. Saw-mills, portable iron forges, mill work, and large framing in wood and iron. Mechanical modelling, and expe- rimental machinery. Turning-lathes, lead and pew- ter pipe-moulds, all sorts of turning, in iron, steel, and brass, with screw cutting, and a great variety of other articles for mechanical movementg, which it would not be easy to enumerate. It is obvious that the person who carries on this business must be possessed of considerable ingenu- ity, and great mechanical knowledge; his employ- ment being of a very complicated kind. He requires the talents and experience of the joiner, the brass and iron founder, the smith and the turner, in their most extended variety. It is by uniting the powers of these several occupations into one, together with the great assortment of excellent tools which he unavoidably requires, that the Machinist is furnished with those facilities of manufacture which pecu- liarly belong to his employment. The saw, the plane, the chisel, and the hammer; the furnace, and all the implements for casting ; the forge, the anvil, the vice ; and the products of these tools are, at last, submitted to the turmng-lathe. This machine. 202 Book of Trades. and its apparatus, as they are now found in the Ma- chinist's manufactory, form the grand and rapid instrument that, by the assistance of the steam-en- gine to give it motion, produces the accuracy which: we find in all the different machinery and instru-'^ ments that the Machinist prepares. The turning-lathe, and its various applications, would occupy much more space than we can spare to describe: we can only hint at them. Cylinders, both interior and exterior, are turned and bored ; plain surfaces of any form, are smoothed; cones, globes, and every other figure that the skill of the workman, or the ingenuity of the apparatus can effect, are brought to their exact shape and polish by this machine, which ranks above all others in usefulness, as well as in the endless variety of its powers. The plate represents the Machinist's work-shop, with the five mechanical powers, viz. the screw, the pulley, the wheel, the wedge, and the lever. There is also the turning-lathe, the steam-engine, and the saw-milL Able journeymen at this business, will get from thirty to fifty shillings per week. We have obtained the principal part of this de- scription from an inspection of the workshop of Mr. Alexander Galloway, the Machinist, West Street, Smithfield, who, we understand, was the first person who established himself under this designation, and who is a proof, in his own person, of the great power^ activity, and ingenuity of man. THE MARINER. The Mariner is, in common language, the same' as sailor, or seaman ; although the art of the Ma- riner is not, strictly speaking, a trade, it is an occu- pation of so much importance in England, that we cannot pass it over. What boldness must that man have possessed who first traversed the ocean in a ship ! If nature has denied us wings, the industry and ingenuity of man has furnished ships with sails, which enable him to move over immense seas with the rapidity of the eagle : nothing more strongly proves the superiority of the genius of man, nothing more powerfully attests his sovereignty and his pre-eminence. Navigation, which is in some way or another known even to the most savage nations, is a profes- sion which requires considerable information, and, which contributes, in a very great degree, to the comforts, the convenience, the happiness and wealth of a nation, more especially in this country, in which it is so much fostered and encouraged. The art itself is very ancient. The Tyrians and the Carthaginians are said to have practised it in the Mediterranean ; but the Chinese, the Arabians, . and Persians, navigated the East Indian seas a lon^ time before. After the ruin of Carthage, naviga- tion was adopted by many of the nations of Europe as a medium of commerce, which has been, indeed, the principal stimulus in the prosecuti :)n of voyages ftom the remotest period of time. It is amongst 204 Boole of Trades. European nations, during the last four centuries, that individuals have arisen, who have, by their en- terprise and perseverance, very much contributed to distinguish them as periods of extraordinary im- portance in the history of the vi^orld. A knowledge of the different seas, of the appli- cation of astronomy, the discovery of the compass, the invention of instruments to take the height of the sun and stars, or to measure the course of the ship ; the observations of sailors themselves, the fidelity of charts ; the better construction of ships, and the perfection of many other things, have brought the management of a ship on the ocean, to almost mathematical demonstration. Christopher Columbus, who discovered America, Bartholomew Diaz, who discovered the Cape of Good Hope, and Captain Cook, by his attempts to discover a north- west passage to India, and other geographical in- vestigations, amidst a crowd of men big with enter- prise, might be mentioned, who have contributed to this important art. As the discovery of the compass forms an aera of the first importance in navigation, we shall present our readers with a short history of it. The magnet, or loadstone, was certainly known to the philosophers of ancient Greece, for its qua- lity of attracting iron ; and in later ages, the few who were in possession of the secret were enabled to perform tricks, which the amazement of the igno- rant ascribed to magic: but till about the end of the twelfth century we find no good authority to shew that its more valuable property, its polarity, or that power by which one point of it, or even of a needle or bar of iron touched with it, turns to the north pole, was known, at least in the western part of the world. It has been asserted, that the Chinese knew the polarity of the magnet, and used the compass many centuries before it was known in Europe : but this The Mariner. point does not seem satisfactorily proved, since, after asserting that the compass was known, they fail in proving the knowledge of its most valuable use in conducting a ship across the ocean. About the conclusion of the twelfth century, the earliest notice that is to be found of the polarity of the magnet, and its use by seamen, appears in the poetical works of Hugues de Bercy, called also Guiot Provins. Jacob de Vitriaco, also, who lived at the same time, and was bishop of Aeon in Palestine, mentions it under the name of adamant, but at the same time describes it as indispensably necessary to all who used the sea. In defiance, however, of these authorities, the Italian writers claim the honour of the invention for Flavio Gioia, a citizen of Amalfi, on the coast of the Adriatic, who, they say, first used it in the year 1302, or 1320. The truth, however, seems to be, that the very early Mariners, to whom the use of the magnetic needle was familiar, were accustomed to place it on a floating straw : while the addition of a circular card, on which the different winds were represented, affixed to the needle, and traversing with it, was ap- parently the improvement of Gioia. Peter Aclsiger, whose letter, dated in 1269, is said yet to remain in the library of the University of Leyden, not only wrote upon the various properties of the magnet, and the construction of the azimuth compass, but on the variation of the magnetic needle ; a discovery, the credit of which was attributed to Columbus in 1492, and afterwards to Sebastian Cabot in 1500 : who seems only to have had greater opportunities than other persons, of remarking that the needle was not perfectly true to the north point, but diverged or varied a little from it. The compass was long very rude and imperfect ; but at length received great improvement from the 206 Book of Trades, invention and experiments of Dr. Knight, Mr. Smeaton, and Mr. M^Culloch about the middle of the sixteenth century. The variation of the needle was not for a long time believed, but careful obser- vations soon discovered that in England and its neighbourhood, the needle pointed to the eastward of the true north line, and the quantity of this de- viation being known, Mariners relied upon their compass, upon making an allowance for the true variation, the exact course being readily obtained. Later observations prove that the deviation from the north was variable ; that it gradually diminished till 1657, when it pointed due north at London; since then it veered to the westward, and is, at this time, 1818, again returning from the west towards the pole. Mariners are sometimes employed on board mer- chant ships, and sometimes in men of war. In merchants' employ, the mariners are accountable to the master, the master to the owners of the vessel, and the owners to the merchant, for any damages that may happen. If a vessel is lost by tempest, the mariners lose their w^ages, and the owners their freight: this is intended to make them use their utmost endeavours to preserve the ship committed to their care. Mariners on board the king's ships are subject to strict regulations, which, however, depend on certain fixed laws passed at different times by parliament. Mariners who are not in his Majesty's service are liable, during the time of war, to be impressed, un- less they enter voluntarily, to which they are en- couraged by bounties and high wages ; and every foreign seaman who, during war, shall serve two years in any man of war, merchant-ship, or priva- teer, becomes naturalized. The Mariner represented in the plate, is of a higher rank and estimation than common sailors; he understands the art of navigation, or of conducting The Mariner. 207; a vessel from one place to another in the safest, shortest, and most commodious way. He ought, therefore, to be well acquainted with the islands, rocks, sands, and straits near which he has to sail. He should also know the signs which indicate the approach to land : these are the appearance of birds, the floating of weeds on the surface of the sea, the depth and colour of the sea. He should, moreover, vmderstand the nature of the winds, particularly the times when the trade winds and monsoons set in ; the seasons when storms and hurricanes may be ex* pected, and the signs of their approach ; the motion of currents and tides. He must understand, also, the working of the ship; that is, the management of the sails, rigging, &c. Navigation is either common ov proper. The for- mer is usually called coasting; that is, where the ships are on the same or very neighbouring coasts ; iind where the vessel is seldom out of sight of land, or out of reach of sounding. In this case little more is required than an acquaintance with the lands which are to be passed, the compass, and the sounding-line. To gain a knowledge of the coast, a good chart or map is necessary. The compass, or Mariner's compass, as it is some* times called, a history of which we have just given, consists of a circular brass box, which contains a: card with the thirty-two points, fixed on a magnetic needle, which always turns to the north, or nearly so. The needle with the card turns on an upright pin fixed in the centre of the box. The top of the box is covered with glass to prevent the wind from disturbing the motion of the card. The whole is inclosed in another box of wood, where it is sus- pended by brass hoops to keep the card in a hori- zontal position, whatever the motion of the ship may be ; and it is so placed in the ship, that the middle section of the box may lie over the middle section of the ship, along her keek. §08 Rook of Trades. . The method of finding by the compass the direc- tion in which a ship sails is, the compass being sus- pended, the Mariner looks horizontally over it, in the direction of the ship's tvaJce, which is a light- coloured track caused on the surface of the water by the course of the ship, by which he sees the point of the compass denoting the direction of the wake ; the point opposite to this is that to w^hich the ship is sailing according to the compass ; and know- ing how much the compass varies, he can tell the true point of the horizon to which he is going. The sounding-line is a line with a plummet at the end : it is used to try the depth of the water and the quality of the bottom. In navigation proper, which is where the voyage is long, and pursued through the main ocean, there are many other requisites besides those already men- tioned. Here a considerable skill in mathematics and astronomy is required, and an aptness in using instruments for celestial observations. One of these instruments the Mariner in the plate is represented holding in his right hand, while he is pointing to his ship with the other. The boat which is to carry him on board of ship, is drawn on shore. To ascertain the velocity of the ship on the water,, the Mariner is provided with an instrument called a log, which is a triangular piece of wood eight or nine inches long, to which is attached a small cord having knots in it at proper distances, and he has also a half-minute sand-glass : the rule is, that as many knots as run off the reel per half minute when the log is in the water, so many miles sails the ship per hour : thus when in nautical language the sailor says, We sailed nine knots, he means our progress was nine miles an hour. When the weather is so cloudy that no celestial observations can be made, the log and compass are of infinite importance : ves- sels sailing under these disadvantages, are said ta The Mariner. 209 sail by dead reckoning. A book of this reckoning is kept in which entries are made daily ; it is called the log'hook. The wages of a Mariner depend upon his employ- ment ; that is, whether he be in the king's service or on board a merchantman : they depend also upon the size of the ship, and on the situation which he holds in it. There is no profession of more importance to the interests of this country than that of the Mariner. Government, therefore, provides a place for num- bers of those who are disabled, in Greenwich Hos- pital, or a pension out of it ; and to the widows and children of those who are slain in defending their country, small pensions are granted. Greenwich Hospital is supported by the nation, and by six- pence a month deducted out of every seaman's wages. THE MERCHANT. The Merchant is a wholesale dealer in all sorts of merchandise, who exports and imports goods to and from different parts of the world, who deals in exchange, and huys and sells goods in their original packages without breaking bulk. In En- gland the term Merchant is usually restricted to a person who has commercial transactions with foreign countries, who is owner of a vessel or vessels, or who is engaged in sending on his own account goods in large quantities from one port to another. To this general definition there are, however, a few exceptions, as a Hop-merchant, &c. The mercantile profession is very ancient, and generally esteemed noble and independent : in France, by two decrees of Louis the XlVth, the one in 1669, and the other in 1701, a nobleman was allowed to trade both by land and sea without any disparagement to his nobility; and we have fre- quent instances of Merchants having been ennobled in that country in consequence of the utility which their commerce produced to the state. In many other places, more especially in the republics of Venice, Holland, and Genoa, the value of commerce has been justly appreciated ; and in Great Britain there is not a higher or more enviable character in the community than that of an honourable, upright, and intelHgent Merchant. To carry on the business of a Merchant with a high degree of credit, a man should possess a large The Merchant, The Merchant. 211 stock of general knowledge and a considerable capi-. tal ; the one will prevent him from falling into errors, and the other will enable him to give credit to his customers both at home and abroad. The Merchant should be perfectly acquainted with all the departments of writing, arithmetic, and the keeping of books. He should be expert in the forms of invoices, account of sales, policies of insur- ances, in the nature of charters, bills of lading, and bills of exchange. He should understand the agree- ment and difference which subsist between the monies, weights, and measures of different countries, or of different counties in his own country. He ought to have a general and accurate knowledge of the different manufactures in which he deals, at least of the places where they are best made, and of the materials of which they are composed. He should know the best season for bringing his own goods to market, and be well acquainted with the nature of exchange^ according to the course of different places, and with the causes of its rise and fall. He should know what merchandizes are per- mitted or prohibited, as well on entering as in going out of the kingdom or states where they are manu- factured. He should know the customs due on the importation or exportation of goods, according to the usage and regulations of the places to which he trades. He should understand the best methods of packing merchandizes, either to preserve them in warehouses, or to adapt them for short or long voyages. He should know the price and condition of freighting and insuring ships and goods ; and if the vessels or any part of them are his own pro-, perty, he should be acquainted with their value ; the expense of first building and subsequent repairs; the wages given to the several officers and sailors who work them, and the best method of engaging them in his service. He ought to be able to write letters with ease and elegance, and to understand as 212 Book of Trades. many foreign languages as he can. The following are, however, the most important for him to know : the Spanish, which is used not only in Spain, but on the coast of Africa, from the Canaries to the Cape of Good Hope ; the Italian, which is understood on all the coasts of the Mediterranean, and in many parts of the Levant ; the German, which is understood in almost all the Northern countries ; and the French, which is current in most parts of Europe. Finally, the Merchant should be well acquainted with the laws, customs, and regulations of the countries to w^hich he does or may trade. The business carried on by Merchants in this country may be divided into inland and foreign. The inland trade consists in transporting the com- modities of one part of the kingdom to another, but this is rather the cent, more or less upon condition that he pay the business of the wholesale dealer, than of professed Merchants, unless goods are conveyed by ships. The foreign trade consists of exports to, and im-» ports from almost all parts of the world. Merchants are distinguished from one another either by the goods in w^iich they traffic, or by the countries with which they have their chief corres- pondence. Thus a Merchant who deals chiefly in tobacco is called a Tobacco-Merchant, a wholesale dealer in wines a Wine-Merchant, &c. The West India Merchant exports and imports goods to and from the West Indies. A Turkey Merchant exports and imports goods to and from Turkey. A Russian Merchant exports and imports goods to and from Russia, &c. Merchants have in their dealings much business with the Custom-House, which may be readily ex- plained. Rum, sugar, and almost all articles im- ported from abroad pay certain duties to govern-^ ment before they can be sold in England : these duties are to be paid at the Custom-House* The Merchant. Many articles manufactured in England, as glass, leather, &c. are subject to heavy taxes ; but to en- courage trade these taxes, or part of them, are often returned, when the same articles are exported to foreign countries, and such returns of taxes are called drawhaclis. Sometimes more is allowed than the tax ; such allowance is called a bounty on expor- tation. Ships are also entered inwards and outwards^ when they bring home or proceed abroad with car- goes ; they also pay a tonnage duty in this country on their arrival, the master being required to carry an account of his cargo to the Custom-House, which is called a manifest report. Factors or Brokers are a species of Merchants wlio deal by commission, and sell the goods of other people, consigned from the place of growth or manufacture to them, for a certain premium per cent. Thus a farmer in the country has a thousand quarters of wheat to sell at the London market ; he cannot conveniently come to town, therefore he sends his wheat to a corn-factor, who sells it to the best advantage, receives the money, and remits it to the farmer, after having deducted his commission- money for trouble and expense. There are, also, factors or brokers who deal in foreign commodities or colonial produce in the same manner. These are distinguished either by the countries with which they deal, or by the goods usually assigned to them; as sugar-brokers, Sheffield- factors, wine-brokers, &c. &c. Insurers, Underwriters ^ are a species of Mer- chants who insure goods from one port to another for a certain premium per cent. If I have a ship hound with goods for the East Indies, there is a risk of its being lost at sea or being burnt; or in time of war, of being taken by an enemy ; I there- fore go to an Underwriter, and pay him 5, 10, or 20 per me, as many hundred pounds as I have in- m4 Boole of Trades* sured in the event of the vessel's being lost or cap- tured by the enemy. The Insurers are called Un- derwriterSy because they write their names below the articles in the instrument called a policy, by which I become legally intitled to the sum which I have insured. To effectuate which insurances there is a class of persons denominated Insurance-brokers. To form an adequate idea of the mercantile trans- actions of the city of London alone, it has been computed that upon an average about five thousand vessels sail from this port every year. These mea- sure upwards of one million of tons, and are navi- gated by about sixty thousand seamen. The Musical Instrument Ma'cer, THE MUSICAL-INSTRUMENT MAKER. The Musical insitrument maker requires no fur* ther definition than that which the name itself im^ ports. Music, as well as painting, can be traced to the most remote antiquity. The most savage nations are not strangers to the pleasure which it affords. W e find in every country the art more or less per- fect, the instruments more or less rude, in propor- tion to the degree of civihzation to which the people have arrived. ^ After the ordinary exercise of speech, to express our w^ants and our intentions, it is a great pleasure to hear from the same voice a melodious song, and this melody is frequently such, that the most perfect instruments are still, in expression, far below it. However, the art and ingenuity of man have now brought musical instruments to a surprising degree of perfection, and considerably added to the elegant luxuries and refinements of the age. It will be impossible for us to mention all the in- struments which are made, either of the wind or stringed kind, but we shall describe some of the principal ones, in order to give some idea of the whole, and of the trade of which we now treat. The organ is an instrument of the highest anti- quity, in the structure of which the greatest inge* nuity has been displayed. The most difficult part of this instrument in its manufacture is the wind* 5 216 Book of Trades. chest, which is a large horizontal box, so closely fitted and prepared as to retain the wind forced into it, by various large bellows, which must be nu- merous, and capacious in proportion to the size of the wind-chest. The quantity of wind in it is always known to the organist, by means of a tell-tale, or index attached to the bellows, which rises and falls in proportion to the quantity of air, and apprizes the performer in what degree the wind is exhausted. The top of the wind-chest is bored with several lines of apertures, proportioned to the sizes of the pipes which they are to receive, those of the bass notes being of course the largest ; but all the pipes in each row being different as to their interior con- struction, and consequently producing very diffe- rent sounds, each row is called a stop, and has a plug appropriate to it, acting upon a slide, which shuts or opens the whole of that row at pleasure ; this is called a register. There are as many of such rows of apertures, or registers, as there are kinds of tones, or stops on the organ : some having few, others having numerous stops. The wind is pre- vented from escaping from the wind-chest into the pipes by valves, which are opened only when the performer presses the keys respectively ; when, by means of communicating wires, the valves are pressed down, and the wind passes into the pipes. When the key is quitted, the pressure of the wind, aided by a spiral wire-spring, shuts the valve, and the sound of that pipe instantly ceases. In order to regulate the force of the sound, most church- organs have either two or three rows of keys where- by a greater or less number of pipes may be filled, and the powers of the instrument be controlled into what is called the small organ, or be let loose, so as to become the full organ. The pipes suited to the higher notes are made of mixed metals, chiefly tin and lead ; they increase in length and diameter, in proportion to the note; until metal pipes being no The Musical-instrument Maker. 217 farther applicable, square ones of wood are substi- tuted in their stead, for all the lower notes. The dimensions of all the pipes of an organ are regu- lated by a scale, or diapason, formed for the use of the manufacturers in this line, and apportioned to every size of the instrument usually made. The stops usually made in a great organ, are the open diapason, in which all the pipes are open at the top ; this is a metallic stop ; — the stopped diapason, the bass-notes of which, up to the tenor C, are always made of wood, and are stopped at their sum- mits with wooden plugs, by which the tone is very much softened ; — the principal is the middle stop, which serves, when tuned, as the basis for tuning all the other parts, above and below ; it is metallic ; — the twelfth, which is metallic also, derives its name from being a twelfth, or an octave and a half above the diapason ; the fifteenth, so called because it is two octaves above the diapason ; the sesquialtera is composed of various pipes, turned in the parts of the common chord ; the upper part is often called the cornet ; i\\e furniture stop is very shrill, and in some passages has a peculiarly fine effect ; the trum- pet is a metallic stop, and derives its name from the instrument which it so admirably imitates ; this pe- culiar tone is produced by what is called a reed, but in reality a piece of brass, on which the wind acts forcibly, giving a roughness of sound, which is fur- ther changed by all the pipes of this stop having bell-mouths like trumpets ; the clarion is a reed-stop also, but an octave higher than the trumpet : the tierce is a third above the fifteenth. The octave above the twelfth is too shrill to be used, but in the full organ ; the cornet is a treble stop ; the dulcimer takes its name from the sweetness of its sound; there are also the fiute, the bassoon, vox-humana^ haut-boy, and cremona stops. The fingering of an organ is precisely the same as that of the piano-forte, so far as relates to the L 218 Book of Trades* situation of the keys, &c. ; but on account of the great number of holding notes in organ music, the fingers are never kept down, whence it is considered highly injudicious to piano-forte performers to prac- tise the organ, they being subject to lose that light- ness and that delicacy of touch required for the former instrument. Organs are also made with barrels, on which are a great number of pins, and staples, of flat brass wire, and of different lengths. The barrel being turned by means of a crank, or winch, the wires that communicate with the valves in the wind-chest, are acted upon by the pins and staples, which hold down the valves for a longer or shorter time, accord- ing to the duration of the notes which they are de- signed to give. On these barrels, which are made to shift at pleasure, from ten to fifteen tunes are usually made. The winch not only turns the barrel, but also works a pair of bellows, by which the wind- chest is supplied. This instrument is called the hand, or barrel organ, and is very common in the streets of London. Before we quit the organ, we may just observe, and the observation will be equally applicable to the manufacturers of other musical instruments, that the organ-builder should possess a nice, accurate, and highly-cultivated ear, and a sound judgment in the vibratory qualities of wood and metal. He should also be acquainted wdth the science of pneu- matics, and practical mechanics ; and he should be so far informed in the simple elements of musical composition as to be capable of trying the different stops and combinations of his own instruments, and of deciding for himself on the effects in perform- ance. Having been so diffuse in the account of the organ, our notice of the other instruments must be some- what circumscribed. But we may remark generally, that in the structure of all kinds of musical instru- The Musical-instrument Maker. 219 ments, both wind and stringed, the use of well-sea- soned wood is of the utmost importance, and that to the preparing and seasoning it, the attention of the musical instrument manufacturer must be par- ticularly directed : for with every precaution in this particular, from the alterations of the atmosphere, the best instruments will sometimes get out of tune ; and, with neglect, the artist's labour will often be in vain. The other principal wind-instruments now in use, are the mouth-organ, or Pandean-pipes, frequently played as an accompaniment to other music in the streets ; they consist of a range of pipes, bound to- gether, side by side, gradually lessening with respect to each other in diameter, and shortening in length. The longest is about six inches, and the shortest about two inches in length. The Eolian harp consists of a long box, in which four or more strings are stretched its whole length, and tuned to the component parts of any common chord, such as C. E. G. C, E. G, &c. opposite the line of strings, which are placed over a slanting sounding-board, and two slits, one on each side, running parallel with the entire strings, or a circular hole with ornamental openings, is made in the cen- tre of the box, under the strings ; when this instru- ment is placed in a confined passage, a window for example, the air rushing between the strings, and through the apertures in the box, produces a variety of harmonious and beautiful sounds. The Trumpet may be next mentioned. It is made of metal : those of silver are by far the softest m tone, but brass is in general use. It has a mouth- piece about an inch in diameter, concave, for the lips to act within, and closing to a very narrow tube. Trumpets with slides to lower or raise the pitch one or tw^o notes, are the best and most useful instru- ments of this class. The French Horn consists of a long tube twisted L 2 220 Book of Trades. into several circular folds, gradually increasing in diameter, from the end at v/hich it is blown, to that at which the wind issues. Those intended for con- certs have, like the trumpets, various crooks and a slide, whereby they may be brought to accord with the most scrupulous exactness. The Serpent is so called from its form: its mouth- piece is very similar to that of the trumpet, but it is made of ivory. This is the deepest bass instru- ment of all that have five finger holes. It is made of very thin wood, covered with buckram and leather, so as to become very firm. In the common flute there are seven fingers above, and one for each thumb below ; some have only one thumb-bole, others two small ones : the sound is generated by blowing through a slit into the bore, the superfluous wind passing out at a vent made on the top close to the upper end. All the flageolet tribe, which are of various sorts and sizes, belong to this species ; one lately introduced, called the double flageolet, is a very pleasing instrument. The German flute is also a very agreeable instru- ment, it is usually made of box, or some very hard and seasoned wood. The Bassoon is not, we believe, so much in use as it formerly was. It has two bodies, and a swan- neck brass tube, with a reed attached to it, through which the sound is generated. The Hautboy and Clarionet have mouth- pieces of different forms, made of reeds, or canes. The principal varieties of stringed instruments, are found in the harp, the piano-forte, the guitar, the violin, and the Eolian harp, before mentioned, &c. In the Harp, each note has a separate string ; in the Welch harp, there are two strings to each note of the principal scale, with an intermediate row for the semitones. In the pedal harp, the half notes are formed, by pressing pins against the strings, so AS to shorten their effective length. The Musical-instrument Maker, 221 In the Harpsichord and Spinnet, instruments gone very much out of fashion; the quill acts hke the finger in the harp, or the plectrum in the lyre. In the Piano-forte the sound is produced by a blow of a hammer, raised by a lever, which is as much detached from it as possible. The Grand Piano resembles the Harpsichord in form, but its action and tone are much superior. Its wires run longitudinally along the belly, or sounding-board, supported, at about two-thirds of an inch distance, by small, low, curved battens of beech, or other wood, into which pins are firmly driven, for the pur- pose of keeping the wires perfectly parallel. These battens, called bridges, determine the lengths of the several wires ; though the latter pass beyond them for some distance, being hooked on at their farther ends to stout pins, driven into a solid part of the frame-work, and coming over the bridge, which is next to the keys, with which it is parallel, and vvind- ing on a set of iron pegs, which, being driven into a solid block of hard wood, are turned either right or left by means of a small instrument, called a tuning hammer, and are thus tightened or relaxed at pleasure. The shortest wires are the thinnest, which lie to the right, and give the upper notes ; the long- est are to the left, and give the lowest notes ; those between them are longer or shorter according to their vibration, their several lengths increasing as they approach towards the left side of the instrument, forming, by means of the bridges which lie obliquely, a triangular figure. Each note has three wires lying within somewhat less than half an inch in breadth : these are equi-distant, and proceed to three rows of tuning-pins, so that the tuner cannot mistake as * to which of the three wires he acts upon. The wires are imported from Germany, our artisans not having acquired the mode of giving them a due degree of temper. Those of the higher notes are L 3 222 Book of Trades. of brass, and commonly begin with No. 8, 9, or 10, gradually increasing in thickness, until they reach the extent of about four octaves, when they give place to copper wires, which produce a deeper sound. Most grand piano-fortes have two pedals, one for each foot, communicating with the interior ; one is designed to raise all the dampers completely, the other to throw the whole of the key-frame to the right, more or less, by which means the hammers are slid at the same moment in a body, about a quarter of an inch to the right, also so as to quit either one or two, at pleasure, of the left-hand wires of each note, and to strike upon only one or two, as is judged proper for the greater or less diminution of sound. The sounding-board, or belly, is made of very fine narrow deals, chiefly imported from the continent, and so closely joined, that in many, no line or indi- cation of junction, can be distinguished. The square piano-forte is very different in form from the grand. It however has an action and movements nearly similar. The Piano-forte is of German origin, and derives its name from its equal command, both of softness and strength of tone. The Guitar is played with the fingers like the harp. It has a broad neck, on which are various frets, made of wires, fixed into the finger-board, at right-angles with the wires, these being the guides for the fingers to make the several notes by passing between the frets. The bridge is very low, and stands behind a circular sound-hole, covered with an ornamental and perforated plate ; the body of the guitar is of an oval form, the sides perpendicular to the belly and back. The Violin is an instrument universally known. All the violin class have four strings fastened at one end to a small piece of ebony, called the tail-piece^ The Musical-instrument Maker. 223 and after passing over a raised bridge, made of sea- soned wood, and over a little ridge, called the nut, are fastened respectively to four pegs, made of very hard tough wood, by the turning of which the strings are put in tune. AH the strings give fifths to their neighbours throughout ; thus the first string is E ; the second A, the third D, and the fourth, which is a covered one, is G ; the tenors and basses have no E string, but a C one added below the G. The notes are made by compressing the strings on a rounded slip of ebony, called a finger-board, which proceeds from the nut, full four-fifths of the dis- tance between that and the bridge, the latter being always placed on the belly or sounding-board, ex- actly between the centres of the two sound -holes, which are in the form of an S ; the belly is sup- ported by a small piece of rounded deal, called the sounding-post, without which the tones would be imperfect and harsh. Violin strings were formerly obtained from Rome, Naples, and some parts of Germany; but latterly they have been manufactured in England, of equal quality with those procured from abroad. Of Drums we have an abundant variety. The side or military drum is well known. The Kettle drum derives its name from its form, the bottom being made of copper, and the head being vellum, or goat's skin. The Tabor is a small drum, so flat, that the two heads are not more than three inches asunder. The Tambourine is a kind of drum, with only one head, the other end of the hoop, which is not more than four inches in breadth, being open. The Triangle is known from its name ; but vve must not swell our article with any further notice. The business of a Musical-Instrument Maker is a very lucrative one. The trade in piano-fortes alone is one of considerable magnitude, seventy L 4 224 Boole of Trades. guineas being frequently paid for a good article of this kind. The price of an organ frequently amounts to many hundred pounds. Of course considerable capital is necessary in this trade, and the wages of journeymen are good. The plate represents the Musical-Instrument Maker's shop. THE NEEDLE-MAKER. The needle is a veiy common little instrument, made of steel, pointed at one end and pierced at the other, used in sewing, embroidery, tapestry, &c. Needles were first made in England by a native of India, in 1545, but the art was lost at his death ; it was, however, shortly after recovered by Christo- pher Greening, who, with his three children, were settled by Mr. Damer, ancestor of the present Lord Milton, at Long Crendon, in Bucks, where the ma- nufactory has been carried on from that time to the present. Needles make a very considerable article of com- merce, although there is scarcely any commodity cheaper, the consumption being almost incredible. The sizes of common sewing needles, are from No. 1 the largest, to No. 25 the smallest. They are, also, of three kinds, sharps, betweens, and bkmts. They are distinguished as Common and Whitechapel, from the latter being of better quality, and having a C cut upon each needle, we apprehend from White- chapel being the residence of the first and best makers of the articles. Whitechapel needles are now, however, made in different yjarts of England. There are, also, many other kinds of needles, as darning needles, double longs, No. 50, &;c. Besides which, there is the netting-needle, and the knitting- needle : the glover's needle with a triangular point ; the tambour-needle, which is made hke a hook; being thrust through the cloth, the thread is caught L 5 226 Book of Trades. under the hook, and the needle is drawn back, tak- ing the thread with it. Surgeons' needles are generally made crooked, and their points triangular: they are of different forms and sizes, and bear different names, according to the purposes for which they are used. In the manufacture of needles, the German and Hungarian steel is most in repute. The first thing in making needles is to pass the steel through a coal fire, and by means of a hammer to bring it into a cylindrical form. This being done, it is drawn through a large hole of a wire-drawing iron, and returned into the fire, and drawn through a second hole of the iron, smaller than the first, and so on till it has acquired the degree of fineness necessary for the kind of needle wanted. The steel thus re- duced to a fine-wire, is cut in pieces of the proper length ; these pieces are flatted at one end on the anvil, in order to form the head and the eye. They are then softened and pierced at each extreme of the fiat part on the anvil, by a punch of well-tem- pered steel, and laid on a leaden block to bring out, with another punch, the little piece of steel re- maining in the eye. When the head and eye are finished, the point is formed with a file, and the whole filed over: the needles are then made red hot, by being laid on long narrow iron, crooked at one end, in a charcoal fire ; and when taken out from thence they are thrown into a bason of cold water to harden. They are next placed in an iron shovel on a fire, more or less brisk in proportion to the thickness of the needles, taking care to move them from time to time. This serves to temper them and take off their brittleness. They are now to be straightened one after ano- ther with the hammer. The next process is the pohshing. To do this, twelve or fifteen thousand needles are ranged in little heaps against each other, in a piece of new buckram sprinkled with The Needte-maker. 227 emery-dust. The needles being thus disposed, emery-dust is thrown over them, which is again sprinkled with oil of olives ; at last, the whole is made up into a roll, well bound at both ends. This roll is laid on a polishing table, and over it a thick plank loaded with stones, which men work back- vrard and forwards for two days successively ; by these means the needles become insensibly polished. They are now taken out and the filth washed oil with hot water and soap, they are then wiped in hot bran a little moistened, placed with the needles in a round box suspended in the air by a cord, which is kept stirring till the bran and needles are dry. The needles are now sorted ; the points are turned the same way and smoothed w^ith an emery-stone turned with a wheel ; this is the end of the process, and nothing remains to be done but to put them up in papers, some of which contain a quarter of a hun- dred, and others, one hundred in a paper, accord- ing to the convenience or wishes of the purchaser. An improvement in the usual mode of tempering needles has been latterly adopted by using oil, or tallow and other ingredients, instead of water, which substances are supposed to improve the process. The needles thus hardened are returned to the fur- nace with the oil upon them, and remain there till the oil inflames, when they are withdrawn, and again cooled in water. This second process tempers them : at first they are quite hard, and so brittle as to break with the slightest touch ; the tempering takes off the brittleness, but leaves them hard enough to take a good point. When they are hardened in water according to the old method, the heat for tempering them can only be guessed at, or estimated by experience, but the flaming of the oil is a much more certain method. Mr. W. Bell, of Walsal, has obtained a patent for the manufacture of needles of all sorts : the l6 228 Booh of Trades. principal difference between which, and the usual method, is, that the needles are cast, and we sup- pose, that by this process, needles may he made still cheaper than they now are. 1 he Mathematical hntriiment Make?\ THE OPTICIAN. The Optician makes telescopes, microscopes, spectacles, opera-glasses, reading-glasses, &c. &c. The history of this important art will, in effect, be an account of the art itself, which v/e shall en- deavour to give in as concise and perspicuous a manner as we can, consistent with the design of this work. Although the ancients made few optical experi- ments, they nevertheless knew that when light passed through media of different densities, it did not move in a straight line, but was bent or refracted out of its original direction. This was probably suggested to them by the appearance of a straight rod partly immersed in water ; and accordingly we find many questions concerning this and other optical appear- ances in the works of Aristotle. It appears also from Pliny, and Lactantius, that burning-glasses were known to the ancients. Archimedes is said to have written a treatise on the appearance of a ring or circle under water, and therefore could not have been ignorant of the com- mon phenomena of refraction. The ancients, however, were not only acquainted with these more ordinary appearances, but also with the production of colours by refraction. Seneca says, that if the light of the sun shines through an angular piece of glass, it will shew all the colours of the rainbow. The first treatise of any consequence, on the subject of optics, was written by Ptolemy ; / 230 Book of Trades. this treatise is now lost, but from the accounts of others, we find that he treated of astronomical re- fractions. The nature of refraction was afterwards consi- dered by Alhazen, an Arabian writer ; and his ob- servations were afterw^ards confirmed by Vitellio, Tycho Brahe, and others. In the writings of Roger Bacon, in the thirteenth . century, we find the first distinct account of the magnifying power of glasses, and it is not improba- ble that what he wrote upon this subject gave rise to the useful invention of Spectacles, From this time to that of the revival of learning in Europe, we have no treatise on optics. One of the first who distinguished himself in this way, was Maurolycus, teacher of mathematics at Messina, in 1578. Bap- tista Porta, who died in 1515, was the inventor of the camera obscura, which throws more fight on these interesting subjects. From this period the writers on optics have been numerous and import- ant, amongst whom Sir Isaac Newton ranks as one of the most eminent. Glass globes, and specula, seem to have been the only optical instruments known to the ancients. Alhazen gave the first hint of the invention of spec- tacles. From the writings of this author, together with the observations of Roger Bacon, it is not im- probable that some monks gradually hit upon the construction of spectacles. It is certain that specta- cles were well known in the 1 3th century, and not long before. It is said, that Alexander Spina, a native of Pisa, who died in 1313, happened to see a pair of spectacles in the hands of a person who would not explain them to him, and that he suc- ceeded in making a pair for himself, and immedi- ately made the construction public. It is also in- scribed on the tomb of Salvinus Armatus, a noble- man of Florence, who died in 1317, that he was the inventor of spectacles. The Optician. 231 But although convex and concave lenses were sufficiently common, yet no attempt was made to combine them into a telescope till the end of the sixteenth century. We are informed, that as James Metius was amusing himself with mirrors and burn- ing-glasses, he thought of looking through two lenses at a time ; and that happening to take one that was convex, and another that was concave, and happening also to hit upon a pretty good adjustment of them, he found that by looking through them, distant objects appeared very large and distinct. In fact, without knowing it, he had m,ade a Tele- scope. But the honour of having exhibited this arrange- ment of glasses in a tube, appears due to Jansen, a spectacle-maker of Middleburgh, in 1590. Jansen, directing his telescope to celestial objects, distinctly viewed spots on the surface of the moon, and dis- covered many new stars. Galileo having made many improvements in the telescope, has by some been considered as the in- ventor, but he himself acknowledges that he first heard of the instrument from a German. The first telescope which Galileo constructed, magnified only three times ; but soon after he made another, which magnified eighteen times ; and afterwards, with great trouble and expence, he constructed one which magnified thirty-three times, and with this he dis- covered the satellites of Jupiter, and the spots on the sun. The honour of explaining the principles of the telescope is due to Kepler. The principal effects of telescopes depend upon these simple principles, viz. that objects appear larger in proportion to the angles which they sub- tend at the eye ; and that the effect is the same whether the pencils of rays by which objects are visible to us, come directly from the objects them- selves, or from any place nearer to the eye where 232 Book of Trades. they may have been conveyed, so as to form an image of the object ; because they issue again from those points when there is no real substance in certain direction, in the same manner as they did from the corresponding points in the objects them- selves. In fact, therefore, all that is effected by a tele- scope, is first to make such an image of a distant object by means of a lens or mirror; and then to give to the eye some assistance for viewing that image as near as possible : so that the angle which it shall subtend at the eye, may be very large com- pared with the angle which the object itself would subtend in the same situation. This is done by means of any eye-glass which so refracts the pencil of rays, that they may afterwards be brought to their several foci by the humours of the eye. But if the eye was so formed as to be able to see the image with sufficient distinctness at the same dis- tance without an eye-glass, it would appear to him as much magnified as it does to another person who makes use of a glass for that purpose, though he would not in all cases have so large a field of view. Such is the telescope which was first discovered and used by philosophers. The great inconveni- ence attending it is, that the field of view is exceed- ingly small. This inconvenience increases with the magnifying power of the telescope, so that it is a matter of surprise how, with such an instrument, Galileo and others could have made such discoveries. No other telescope, however, than this, was so much as thought of for many years after the dis- covery. It is to the celebrated Kepler that we are in- debted for what we now call the astronomical tele- scope. The principles of this instrument are ex- plained, and the advantages of it are clearly pointed out by this philosopher in his Catoptrics ; but what The Optician. 233 is very surprising, he never actually reduced his theory to practice. The first person who made an instrument of Kep- ler's construction was Scheiner, who has given a description of it in his Rosa Ursina, published in 1630. If, says he, you insert two similar lenses in a tube, and place your eye at a convenient distance, you will see all terrestrial objects inverted, indeed, but magnified and very distinct, with a considerable extent of view. He afterwards subjoins an account of a telescope of a different construction with two convex eye-glasses, which again reverses the images, and makes them appear in their natural position. This construction, however, answered the end very imperfectly, and Rheits soon after disco- vei'ed a better construction, using three eye-glasses instead of two. But these improvements, and many others since made, have diminished in value by the discovery of the reflecting telescope; for a reflecting telescope even of one 1,000 feet focus, supposing it possible to be made use of, could not be made to magnify with distinctness more than 1,000 times, whereas a reflecting telescope not exceeding nine or ten feet, will magnify 1200 times. Mr. James Gregory of Aberdeen was the first in- ventor of the reflecting telescope, but his construc- tion is quite different from Sir Isaac Newton's, and not nearly so advantageous. But in constructing reflecting telescopes of ex- traordinary magnifying powers. Sir William Her- schel has displayed skill and ingenuity surpassing all his predecessors in this department of mechanics. He has made them from 7, 10, 20, to even 40 feet in length, and with instruments of these dimen- sions made several important discoveries in astro- nomy. To describe these instruments would far exceed the limits to which we are confined ; but we may mention that the concave face of the metalHc 234 Book of Trades. mirror of Sir William's largest telescope, which is fixed at the bottom of a forty-feet tube of iron, is forty-eight inches of polished surface in diameter. The thickness, which is equal in every part of it, is about three inches and a half, and its weight, when it came from the cast, was 2,118 pounds, of which it must have lost a small quantity in the polishing. The metal is an amalgam supposed to be composed of 32 parts of copper, 15 of tin, 1 of brass, 1 of silver, and 1 of arsenic : for Sir W. Herschel has not made the composition public ; but Mr. Edwards, an intimate friend of his, after repeated trials, found this proportion the best for receiving a fine polish, and producing the most perfect reflection. This instrument, with proper eye-glasses, magni- fies above 6,000 times, and is the largest which has ever been made. The achromatic telescope was the invention of Mr. Peter Dollond. The micrometer is an instrument which is used with a telescope for the purpose of measuring smalL angles, and by the help of which the apparent magnitudes of objects viewed through a telescope or microscope, are measured with great correct- ness. The microscope is composed of lenses or mirrors, by means of which small objects are made to appear larger than they really are to the naked eye. Mi- croscopes are distinguished into simple, compound, and double. Simple microscopes consist of a single lens or spherule. The compound microscope con- sists of several lenses duly combined. As optics have been improved, other varieties have been con- trived in this instrument : hence we have reflecting microscopes, water microscopes, botanical micros- copes, solar microscopes, &c. The kaleidoscope is an instrument which has lately obtained great celebrity on account of the very amusing and new forms which, by turning it round, The Optician. 235 it constantly presents to the eye. Dr. Brewster of Edinburgh has obtained a patent for the invention, an account of which may be seen in the Monthly Magazine for January, 1818. It is asserted, how- ever, that the discovery is not a new one : for that a person named Bradley, a gardener at Hampton Court, mentions such an instrument in a work pub- lished by him more than one hundred years ago. The mode in which the kaleidoscope is made is very simple : take a hollow tube of any dimensions, and of any length, two inches in diameter, and twelve long is a convenient size : take two pieces of plate glass about one inch and a half in diameter, and one line in thickness, of a length somewhat shorter than the tube itself, and let them be fixed so that one edge may touch the other, and so as to form an angle with each other of 22 J degrees ; a few bits of cork may be so notched as to keep the pieces of glass in their places : the glasses are to be darkened by black painting, or some other conve- nient method on the exterior ^ides. At one end of the tube provide two circular pieces of plain clear glass, exactly the diameter of the tube into which they are to be fitted. Place between these two glasses a quantity of broken pieces of different coloured glass, the more intense and various the colours, the more brilliant will the forms be, and let the pieces of broken glass be so placed as to move freely as the tube is turned round. At the opposite end of the tube let there be a small hole for the sight: the instrument v/ill be complete ; a succession of beautiful forms will then be visible, which till experienced would be believed absolutely impossible to be produced by any art or contrivance of man. The uses to which this instrument may be put, both useful and ornamental, it would not be easy to enumerate ; it can never cease to be a con- stant source of amusement and delight. 236 Book of Trades, Telescopes are made of various dimensions, and at a great variety of prices. Spectacles are also an article, as is well known, in considerable request. They are made to suit eyes of different ages and of different capacities of vision. Their prices are various, depending principally upon the style in which they are mounted. From what has been said, it is evident that an Optician should be conversant with mathematics and mechanics, and many other branches of science with which optics are connected. He should also know the history of what has been hitherto done in this art, as well as what is now doing, in order to be able to apply himself to the construction of the various instruments which it is his business to make. The plate represents the Optician's shop, in which are seen the telescope, the microscope, spectacles^ opera-glasses, &c. THE PAINTER. This artist paints portraits, historical pieces, landscapes, sea pieces, with shipping, &c. Some Painters have peculiar talents for one departpient, and some for others ; but it rarely happens that the same man excels in them all, or even in more than one or two. A Portrait Painter in large, is, how- ever, frequently well skilled in history, but an artist who paints in miniature is often unacquainted with . any other part of the profession. Some Painters, who can execute almost any thing else in a masterly manner, have no idea of shipping, which requires a considerable degree of nautical knowledge. Painting, which at the present time has arrived at a high degree of perfection, appears to have been invented by the Egyptians, at least as to the four principal colours : the knowledge which they had of chemistry seems to confirm this opinion, but we cannot infer from their monuments, or from what is said of them by ancient writers, that they were good. Painters ; on the contrary, Petronius says dis- tinctly, that their painting was bad, and that they corrupted the art. Painting passed very soon from Egypt into Greece, where were formed in process of time the famous schools of Scio, Rhodes, and Athens. What is most astonishing is, that the first Painters, amongst whom we reckon Polygnotus, used but the four principal colours. It was Echion, Nicho- machus, Protogenes, and after them Apelles, who 238 Book of Trades, imitated with compound colours all the shades of nature. The Greeks, with all their skill, v/ere not able to retain painting in that perfection which it had ac- quired in the time of Apelles : for in the age of Augustus, as we are informed by Dionysius of Hali- carnassus, it had very much degenerated. The art of painting was a long time buried in the West, under the ruins of the Roman empire. The Orientals preserved it with more care, but entirely divested it of its former splendour. In the thirteenth century it again appeared in Italy, beneath the pencil of Cimabue. Many Painters acquired repute in the two succeeding ages, but their works are no longer inquired after. At the end of the fifteenth century, painting was still a coarse art in Italy, two hundred years after its revival. The method of painting in oil had been discovered, but it was in a very rude way. Ghirlandajo painted in this style, although he surpassed all the Painters of his time : his chief merit consists in having formed the celebrated Michael Angelo. The arts and sciences generally began to appear with considerable lustre under the pontificate of Juhus the Second, Leo the Tenth, and Clement the Seventh. Painting, architecture, and sculpture, had their distinguished men, as well as the belles lettres; and Michael Angelo, excited by the reward of Ju- lius, perfected his pencil, and became a great master of his art. From this period, the progress of painting in many countries of Europe, particularly Italy, Holland, France, and England, has been of the most brilliant kind. Academies have been instituted, societies have been formed, collections have been made, and exhi- bitions opened, an account of which, and of the illus- trious men who have contributed by their works to fill them, would require volumes. The Painter.. 239 The implements made use of in this art are a stone and a muUer to grind the colours ; an opera- tion which is sometimes performed with oil, and sometimes with water: hence the distinction be- tween painting in oil and painting in water colours. A palette and palette knife are also required ; the latter to take off the paint from the stone, and the former, which is made of walnut-tree or mahogany, is that on which the artist puts his colours for im- mediate use; The pencils or brushes are made of camel's hair, badger's hair, or hog's bristles. The stick in the Painter's hand ( see the plate ) is about a yard long, with cotton wool tied round the end in a piece of soft leather to prevent its scratch- ing the picture. On this the artist rests his right hand to keep it steady. The canvas for the in- tended picture is placed on a wooden frame, called an easel, which is so constructed, by means of holes and pegs, that it may be raised or lowered at pleasure. The cloths prepared for receiving the colours of the Painter are usually denominated primed cloths, and in the general way are got up as a separate branch of business, ready to the Painter's hands. It will be impossible to describe in the limits of this work the great variety of different articles used for colours in painting, but to give some idea of them we may mention that in painting landscapes, for instance, flake white, white lead, fine hght ochre, brown ochre, brown pink, burnt umber^ burnt ochre, ivory black, terra de Siena, Prussian blue, ultra- marine, terre-verte, lake, Indian red, vermillion, king's yellow, &c. &c. are commonly used. The earnings of an artist cannot be defined : he is paid according to his talents, and to the celebrity which he has acquired. Some persons will require a hundred guineas for a piece, which another of in- ferior merit, or little known to the public, would be glad to perform for a twentieth part of the sum. 2iO Book of Trades. To give some idea of the present art of painting in England, according to a list inserted in the seventh number of the Annals of the Fine Arts, there are five hundred and twenty three Painters in the different departments of the art, amongst -whom, it deserves to be especially noted, are forty three ladies ! Paper Maker THE PAPER-MAKER. The art of making paper, as at present practised, is not of a very ancient date ; paper made of linen rags appears to have been first used in Europe to- wards the beginning of the thirteenth century, but of its origin nothing can with certainty be affirmed. The ancients, as substitutes for paper, had re- course successively to palm-tree leaves, to table- books of wax, ivory, and lead; to linen and cotton cloths, to the intestines or skins of dilFerent animals, and to the inner bark of plants. In some places and ages they have even written on the skins of fishes, on the intestines of serpents, and in others, on the backs of tortoises. There are few plants but have, at some time, been used for paper or books, and hence the several terms bibels, codex, liber, folium, tabula, &c. which express the different parts on which they were written ; and though in Europe all these disappeared upon the introduction of the papyrus and parchments, yet in some other countries the use of them remains to this day. In Ceylon, for instance, they write on the leaves of the tallipot ; and the Bramin, MSS. in the Tulinga lan- guage, sent to Oxford from Fort St. George, are written on leaves of plants. The paper which had been for a long time used by the Romans and Greeks, was made of the bark of an aquatic plant called papyrus, whence the name paper. 242 Book of Trades. The internal parts of the bark of this plant were the only ones that were made into paper, and the manner of the manufacture was as follows : — Strips or leaves of every length that could be obtained being laid upon a table, other strips were placed across, and pasted to them by means of water and a press, so that this paper was a texture of sevei'al strips ; and it even appears that in the time of the emperor Claudius, the Romans made paper of these layers. The Roman paper received a size as well as ours, which was prepared with flour of wheat diluted with boiling M^ater, on which were thrown some drops of vinegar; or crumbs of lea^ vened bread diluted with boiling water, and passed through a bolting- cloth, being afterwards beaten with a hammer. Paper made in this manner with the bark of the Egyptian plant, was that which was chiefly used till the tenth century, when cotton was used for making paper by pounding it, and reducing it to a pulp. This method, known in China some ages before, ap- peared at last in the empire of the East, yet we are without any certain knowledge of the author, or the time and place of this invention. Father Montfaucon says, that cotton paper began to be used in the empire of the East about the ninth century. There are several Greek manuscripts, both on parchment and cotton-paper, that bear the date of the time in which they were written ; but the greatest part are without date. The most an- cient manuscript on cotton-paper, with a date, is that in the library of the king of France, numbered 2,889, written in 1050: another in the emperor's library, dated 1095. Chinese paper is of various kinds : some is made of the bark of trees, especially the mulberry-tree and the elm, but chiefly of the bamboo and cotton* tree. In fact, almost each province has its several sorts of paper. The Paper-maker. 243 The inventor of the linen-rag paper, whoever he was, is entitled to the gratitude of posterity, who are enjoying the advantages of the discovery. The cotton-paper, though an improvement, was but a rude and coarse article, unfit for any of the nice purposes to which paper is now applied. The per- fection of the art of paper-making consisted in find- ing a material which could be procured in sufficient quantities, and would be easy of preparation. Such paper is now in use, of which we shall endeavour to describe the manufacture. Linen, such as our shirts are made of, is spun from flax which grows in the fields ; and from linen rags, that is, from shirts and other articles of dress, when worn thread-bare, fine white paper is manu- factured : of course every piece of rag, however small, should be preserved, and not thrown into the fire ; and latterly, indeed, from the increased use of calico as an article of clothing, cotton rags are be- come of almost as much importance as linen rags, and should have equal care devoted to their preser- vation. The first thing to be done towards the formation of paper, is to put the rags into a machine or cylin- der formed of wire, which is made to turn round with great velocity, to whirl out the dust ; they are then sorted according to their different qualities ; after which they are put into a large cistern or trough, perforated with holes, through which a stream of clear water constantly flows. In this cis- tern is placed a cylinder about two feet long, set thick with rows of iron spikes. At the bottom of the trough there are corresponding rows of spikes. The cylinder is made to whirl round with inconceiv- able rapidity, and with the iron teeth rends and tears the cloth to atoms, till, with the assistance of the water, it is reduced to a thin pulp. By the same process all the impurities are cleared away, and it is restored to its original whiteness. This fine pulp M 2 244 Book of Trades. is next put into a copper of warm water, and here it becomes the substance of paper, and ready for the mould ; for which purpose it is conveyed to the vat. This vat, of which we have a representation in the plate, is made of wood, generally about five feet broad, and two or three feet in depth. It is kept to a proper temperature by means of a char- coal fire. The mould which the Paper-Maker has in his hand is composed of many wires set in a frame close together, and of another moveable frame equal in size to the sheet of paper to be made. These wires are disposed in the shape of the figure which is discovered in a sheet of paper when we hold it up to the light. The workman holds the frame in both his hands, plunges it horizontally into the tub, and takes it up quickly ; the water runs away between the wires, and there remains nothing but the beaten pulp, in a thin coat, which forms the sheet of paper. Another person, called the coucher^ receives the mould, and places the sheet of paper on a felt or woollen cloth, during which the workman makes another sheet. They proceed in this manner, laying alternately a sheet and a felt, till they have made six quires of paper, which are called a post : such is the heap on the right hand of the vat. When the last sheet of the post is covered with the last felt, the workmen employed about the vat unite, and submit the whole heap to the action of the press, which is on the Paper-maker's right hand. After this operation another person separates the sheets of paper from the felts, laying them in a heap ; and several of these heaps collected together are again put under the press. They are turned and pressed several times, and then the sheets are hung up three or four together, on lines, to dry. The paper is now to be shed, because in its pre- sent state it will not bear the ink. The size is made of The Paper-maker. 245 shreds and parings collected from the tanners, curriers, and parchment-makers; and, immediately before the operation, a certain quantity of alum is added to it. The workman then takes a handful of the sheets, smoothed and rendered as supple as possible, and dips them into the vessel containing the size ; and when he has finished ten or a dozen of these hand- fuls, they are submitted to the action of the press ; the superfluous size is carried back to the vessel by means of a small pipe. The paper is now to be hung sheet by sheet on lines to dry. When the paper is sufficiently dry, it is carried to the finishing room, where it is pressed, selected, examined, folded, made up into quires, and finally into reams. It is here submitted twice to the press ; first when it is at its full size, and secondly after it is folded. Every quire of paper consists of twenty-four or twenty-five sheets ; the larger number refers to paper made use of in printing : and each ream con- tains twenty quires. In the manufacture many sheets are damaged ; these, in the sorting-room, are put together, and two of the worst quires, containing only about twenty sheets, are placed on the outsides of the ream, called outside quires. The reams are tied up in wrappers made of the settling of the vat, and they are then fit for sale. Some paper is made smooth and glossy like satin, by means of hot plates ; this is called hot-pressing. The process of paper-making takes about three weeks. Pasteboard is made in a similar way to that of paper, and when it is wanted very thick, it is made by having sheets pasted one upon another. There is, however, a kind of thick paper, called millboard^ used for covers of books, which is made at once : it is composed, like brown papers, of very coarse rags, old ropes, &c. M 3 246 Book of Trades. Blotting-paper, and paper used for filtering fluids, is paper not sized, into which, therefore, the ink readily sinks. The best filtering paper is made of woollen rags, chosen for the purpose. Wove or woven paper is made in moulds, the wires of which are exceedingly fine, of equal thick- ness, and woven or latticed one within another. The marks, therefore, of these, are easily pressed out, so as to be scarcely visible. The greatest modern improvement in paper-ma- king, is the bleaching of the rags. This enables the manufacturer to produce the finest paper, in point of colour, from any kind of rags. He has there- fore only to find such materials as will make a paper of a strong texture, and a fine even surface, knowing that he can produce colour at pleasure. Bleaching is conducted by different methods, either by bleach- ing the rags immediately after they are sorted, bleaching them in the half-stuff, that is, after they have been once ground in the washing-engine, or while they are in the engine. For the first of these methods Mr. Campbell obtained a patent in 1792. It consists in having a chamber which is air-tight, into which the rags must be introduced, and with proper retorts, containing a mixture of manganese, sea- salt, and sulphuric-acid, heated to a certain ex- tent ; a gas will be discharged from the mixture, which destroys all the colour that the rags may contain. Another important alteration has been recently made in the art of paper-making, by the adoption of machinery for fabricating it from the pulp, and at one operation pressing it between the felts, and rendering it fit for the second pressure, by which an immense saving of labour is made, and the quahty of the paper improved. Messrs. Fourdriniers have a patent for these machines, of which they have erected a great number in different parts of the kingdom. Paper has been occasionally made of straw^ and The Paper-maker. other materials not commonly in use, and Mr. Koop, in 1802, obtained a patent for making straw-paper, but we have not heard that the use of this article is become common. Paper is subject to heavy excise duties, the par- ticulars of which we have not room to enumerate ; and the manufacturer of paper must also take out an annual license. The manufacture of paper is so curious, and so well worth the attention of young persons, that we recommend them to take some pains to obtain a sight of the whole process, which may easily be done wherever there are paper-mills. M 4 THE PEWTERER The Pewterer is a person who makes plates, dishes, pots, syringes, funnels, worms for stills, and a variety of other articles of pewter. The trade of a pewterer is very ancient, and although little mention is made of it in books of his- tory, there is no doubt, from the economy of its materials for culinary purposes, that it must have existed in this kingdom for many centuries. We find in the reigns of Henry the Seventh and Eighth, that many statutes were enacted relative to the Pewterer: by 19 of the former king, cap. 6, and 4 of the same, cap. 4, the weights and standard of Pewterers' metal were hraited. We find also by other statutes of Henry VIII. that their goods were liable to be searched and sold in open places ; and by the 25th of Hen. VIII. c. 9, s. 3, no stranger born shall work pewter, &c. all which proves, that in Henry the Eighth's time, the Pewterer must have been a trade of considerable importance: indeed, we apprehend much more so than at the present day, for pewter, in domestic use, except the article of pots for porter, is by no means so common as it was forty years ago, earthenware having in a great degree superseded it. Pewter is a factitious metal, and very uncertain in its composition. It is generally kept of different standards : that which is called plate-metal, is said to be formed of tin and regulus of antimony, in the The Pewterer, The Pewterer. 249 proportions of 112 pounds of the former, to six or seven pounds of the latter. The next inferior to this is called trifling metal, and is lowered by alloying it with lead: of this metal ale-house pots are made. Lead may be mixed with tin in any proportion, without destroy- ing its malleability. Hence, lead and tin, with or without other smaller additions, form the pewter of ordinary use. Lead being the cheapest of the two metals, the manufacturer finds it his interest to employ it in as large a proportion as possible. But as lead is well known to be a very noxious metal, experiments have been made to ascertain in what proportion it may be mixed with tin without injury to the liquors for which pewter is commonly used. It has been found, when wine or vinegar was allow- ed to stand in vessels composed of an alloy of tin and lead, that the tin is first dissolved, whilst the lead is not acted upon by the liquors, except at the line of contact of the air and liquor ; and that no sensible quantity of lead is dissolved, even by vinegar, after standing for some days in vessels that contained no more than eighteen pounds in the hundred of lead. Hence it was concluded, that as no noxious effect is produced by the very minute quantity of tin which is dissolved, pewter may be considered as perfectly safe which contains about 80 or 82 per cent of tin. And when vessels are employed for measures, a much less proportion of tin may be used. But it has been found that the common pew- ter at Paris contains no more than about 25 or 30 per cent, of tin, the remainder is lead ; and there is great reason for believing that the pewter commonly used in England is of no better quality. It is evi- dent, therefore, that the use of pewter vessels, un- less the proportion of its alloy could be ascertained, is by no means desirable. The pewterer must have an iron pot to melt the metal, a ladle to take it out, and suitable moulds for making the various articles which he manufac- ]\i 5 Book of Trades, tares : he must also have a turning lathe, for the purpose of finishing those articles which require to be rounded and true. Pewterers have two sorts of moulds, which are commonly made of copper : those which they use for flat pewter, as dishes, plates, &c. and those which they use for hollow vessels, such as pots, -&c. &c. The moulds for flat pewter are composed of two pieces, one of which forms the upper, the other the under part of the article. These two pieces are so far apart as to permit the metal to be run, when melted, between them, to the exact shape and thickness of the article v/anted. The moulds for pots, &c. are composed of four pieces, two for the bottom and two for the sides. Before the moulds are used, it is necessary to rub them with fine coal-dust, mixed with the white of an egg, and laid on with a brush ; they are after- wards to be heated. The propriety of casting consists in the know* ledge of the due degree of heat, not only of the melted metal, but also of the moulds ; and this is acquired principally by experience. The finer the pewter the hotter in general should the metal be when it is cast. As soon as the mould is sufficiently hot, it is to be laid hold of with bits of hat, and the pieces are laid horizontally one upon the other ; they are then fixed firmly together by an iron ring prepared for the purpose : it is afterwards placed on edge in such a way, that the hole of the mould having a funnel shape to it, may be easily come at. The pewter is then taken from the melting pot with an iron ladle, which will contain a sufficient quantity of it to make the article at once, without a second dipping. As soon as the article is cast, the mould is laid down, and the sides struck with a wooden mallet. The mould is now to be opened, and the article is taken 2 The Pewterer. 251 away on the blade of a knife. And in this way the workman proceeds till he has obtained as many of the kind as are wanted. There are many statutes relating to the manufac- ture and sale of pewter: one clause in the 19 Hen. 7. c. 6, we think it necessary to quote. No person shall make any hollow wares of pewter, to wit, salts and pots made of pewter called lay-metal, but the assize of pewter and lay-metal within London ; and the makers shall mark them with their own mark, that they may avow the same by them wrought; and the same, not sufficiently made and wrought, and not marked, found in the possession of the maker or seller, shall be forfeited ; and if the same be sold, the maker shall forfeit the value thereof, half to the king, and half to the finder or searcher." The plate represents the pewterer in the act of casting some article on a bench, with dishes, sy- ringes, &c. around him: the pot in which is the melted metal, is on the ground by his side. H 6 THE PIN-MAKER. The Pin-maker is a person who makes small in- struments of brass wire, with a head at one end and a point at the other, which are used by females in adjusting their dress. It is not easy to trace the invention of this very useful little implement. It is first noticed in the English statute book in the year 1483, prohibiting foreign manufactures : and it appears from the man- ner in which pins are described in the reign of Henry the Eighth, and the labour and time which the manufacture of them would require, that they were a new invention in this country, and probably brought from France. At this period pins were considered in Paris as articles of luxury : and no master pin-maker was allowed to open more than one shop, for the sale of his wares, except on New Year's day, and the day before that ; it should seem, therefore, that pins were given away as New Year's gifts ; hence arose the phrase pin-money, the name of an allowance frequently made by the husband to his wife for her own spending. The art of making pins of brass wire was not known in England before the year 1543: prior to that period they were made of bone, ivory, or box. The pin manufactory was introduced into Glou- cester in 1626, by John Tilsby. There are no|v in Gloucester nine distinct pin-manufactories, which The Pin-maker. 253 employ together at least 1,500 persons. The pins sent annually to the metropolis amount to the value of 20,000/., but the chief demand is from Spain and America. Pins are also manufactured in other places in England : some are made in Bristol. There is scarcely any commodity cheaper than pins, and but few which pass through more hands from their first state of rough wire to their being stuck in paper for sale : it is reckoned that twenty- five workmen are successively employed from the commencement to the finishing of this simple article. Pins are nov/ made wholly of brass wire ; formerly iron wire was made use of, but the ill effects of iron have nearly discarded that substance from the pin- manufactory. The excellence and perfection of pins consist in the stiffness of the wire and its blanching ; in the heads being well turned and the points accurately filed. The following are some of the principal operations. When the brass wire of which the pins are form- ed, is first received, it is generally too thi.^k for the purpose of being cut into pins. It is therefore wound off from one wheel to another with great velocity, and made to pass between the two through a hole in a piece of iron of smaller diameter than the wire itself is, which operation is called wire-drawing. This operation is repeated with holes of different diameters, till the wire is reduced to the size which it may be w^anted: what it loses in bigness, it of course gains in length. The wire is then straight- ened, and afterwards cut into lengths of three or four yards, and then into smaller ones, every length being sufficient for six pins ; each end of these is ground to a point, which is performed by a boy, who sits with two small grinding stones before him, turned by a wheel. Taking up a handful he ap* plies the- ends to the coarsest of the two stones, being careful at the same time to keep each piece Book of Trades. moving round between his fingers, so that the points may not become flat ; he then gives them to the other stone ; and by that means a lad of twelve or fourteen years of age is enabled to point about 16,000 pins in an hour. When the wire is thus pointed, a pin is taken off from each end, and this is repeated till it is cut into six pieces. The next operation is that of forming the heads, or as the pin-maker terms it, head-spinnings which is done by means of a spinning-wheel, one piece of wire being thus wound round another with astonishing rapidity, and the interior one being drawn out, leaves a hollow tube ; it is then cut with shears, every two turns of the wire forming one head ; these are soft- ened by throwing them into iron pans, and placing them in a furnace till they are red hot. As soon as they are cool they are distributed to children, who sit with their anvils and hammers before them, which they work with their feet by means of a lathe ; and, taking up one of the lengths, they thrust the blunt end into a quantity of the heads which lie before them, and catching one at the ex- tremity, they apply them immediately to the anvil and hammer ; and, by a motion or two of the foot, the point and the head are fixed together in much less time than it can be described in, and with a dexterity only to be acquired by practice, the spec- tator being in continual apprehension for the safety of the fingers' ends. The pin is now finished as to its form, but still it is merely brass ; it is therefore thrown into a copper containing a solution of tin and lees of wine* Here it remains for some time, and when taken out it as- sumes a white though dull appearance. To give it a polish it is put into a tub containing a quantity of bran, which is set in motion by turning a shaft that runs through its centre, and thus by means of fric- tion it becomes perfectly bright. The pin being complete, nothing remains but to separate it fi'om The Pin-maker. 255 the bran, which is performed by a mode exactly similar to the winnowing of corn, the bran flying off, and leaving the pins behind fit for immediate sale. The pins most esteemed in commerce are those of England ; those of Bordeaux are next ; then those made in some of the other departments of France. The London pointing and blanching are most in repute, because our pin-makers, in pointing, use two steel mills, the first of which forms the point, and the latter takes off all irregularities, and renders it smooth, and as it were polished ; and in blanching they use block tin granulated ; whereas in other places they mix their tin with lead and quicksiver, which not only blanches worse than the former, but is also dangerous, as any puncture made with pins of this sort is not readily cured. Mr. W. Bunby, of Camden Town, obtained in the year 1809 a patent for a new instrument for heading pins, which we have not room to describe. Besides the brass pin above described, pins are sometimes made of iron wire, rendered black by a varnish of linseed oil with lamp-black. These are, of course, designed for persons in mourning. Pins are distinguished by numbers ; the smallest are called minikins, the next short whites. The next larger ones are numbered 3, 3|, 4, 4J, and 5, to the 14th, whence they go by two's, viz. No, 16, 18, and 20, which is the largest size. Pins are not only sold in papers and packets as in the above numbers, but they are also sold by the pound weight, being tied up in pound papers, and having a great variety of sizes mixed together in each paper for convenience. There are also pins with double heads, of several numbers, used by ladies to fix the buckles of their hair for the night, without the danger of pricking. THE PLUMBER. The business of the Plumber consists in casting and working of lead, and using it in buildings. He furnishes us with a cistern for water, and with a sink for a kitchen ; he covers the house with lead, and makes the gutters to carry away the water ; he makes pipes of all sorts and sizes, and sometimes he casts leaden statues as ornaments for the garden. The plumber also is employed in making coffins for those who are to be interred out of the usual way. He also fits up water closets, and makes pumps. Lead is an article which has been in use from a very remote period amongst different nations of the world. We have not been enabled to ascertam the commencement of the trade under our immediate consideration, but workers in lead must have been coeval with the discovery of the metal. That the plumber must be an ancient trade is evident: for we find that in France, as early as the middle of the seventeenth century, plumbers in that country form- ed one of the incorporated companies, with statutes for their particular government. Lead is obtained fi'om mines, and is frequently combined with sulphur, hence it is called a sulphnret. The operation of roasting the ore, or smelting it, as it is called, to obtain the pure metal, consists in picking up the mineral to separate the unctuous rich or pure ore, and the stony matrix and other impuri- ties, — in pounding the picked ore under the stam- pers, — in washing the pulverized ore, to carry off the / The Plumber. 257 matrix by the water ; — in roasting the mineral in a reverberatory furnace, taking care to stir it to faci- litate the evaporation of the sulphur. When the surface begins to become of the consistence of paste, it is covered with charcoal, the mixture is shaken, the fire increased, and the lead flows down on all sides to the bottom of the basis of the furnace, from which it is drawn off into moulds or patterns pre- pared to receive it, the moulds are made so as to take a charge of metal equal to one hundred and fifty pounds. These are called in common pigs of lead. Plumbers use a great deal of sheet lead ; of this they have two kinds, one which they call cast, and the other milled lead. The cast lead is used for covering the flat roofs of terraces, buildings, gutters, lining reservoirs, &c. It is technically divided into 5, 5J, 6, 7, 7J, 8, 8J lbs. by which is understood that every foot superficial of such cast lead is to con- tain these several weights of metal in each foot respectively. Every plumber who does any business of conse- quence casts his sheet lead at home : which he does from the pigs. To perform which he provides a copper well fixed in masonry, and placed at one end of the casting shop, and near to the mould or cast- ing table. The casting table is generally in its form a parallelogram, varying in its size from six feet in width to eighteen or more feet in length; it is raised from the ground as high as to be about six or seven inches below the top of the copper which contains the metal, and stands on strongly-framed legs, so as to be very steady and firm. The top of the table is lined by deal boarding, laid very even and firm, and it has a rim projecting upwards four or five inches all round it. At the end of the table, nearest to the copper in which is the heated lead, is adapted a box equal in length to the width of the table; at the bottom of this is made a horizontal 258 Book of Trades. slit, from which the heated metal is to issue, when it is to be cast into sheets. This box moves upon rollers along the edges of the projecting rim of the table, and is set in motion by ropes and pulleys, fixed to beams over the table. As soon as the metal is found to be adequately heated, every thing is gotten ready to cast it on the table, the bottom of which is then covered with a stratum of dry and clean sand, and a rake applied to smooth it regu- larly all over the surface. When this is done the box is brought up close to the copper. It must be observed, that these boxes are made in their capa- city, equal to the containing of as much of the melted lead as will cast the whole of the sheet at the same time, and the slit in the bottom is adjusted so as to let as much and no more out during its pro- gress along the table, as will be sufficient to cover it completely of the thickness and weight per foot required. When the box has dispersed its contents upon the table, the lead is suffered to cool, when it is rolled up and removed away, and other sheets are made till all the melted metal is used. The sheets so formed are rolled up and weighed. Milled lead is not manufactured by the plumber, but is purchased of the lead merchant, as it is cast and prepared at the ore and roasting furnace. Such kind of lead is very thin, and has commonly not more than four pounds of metal to the superficial foot. In the operation of making it, a roller or a flatting mill is used, whence its name. If a cistern is wanted the four sides are measured out, and the figures intended to be raised on the front are formed in the sand, and the lead cast as before ; the sides are then soldered together, after which the bottom is soldered in. Pipes are cast in a kind of mill with arms or levers to turn it. The moulds are of hollow brass, consisting of two pieces about two feet and half long, which open and shut by means of hinges and The Plumber. 259 hooks. In the middle of these moulds is placed a core, or round solid piece of brass or iron, some- what longer than the mould. This core is passed through two copper rundles, one at each end of the mould, which they serve to close ; to these is joined a little copper tube two inches long, and of the thickness of the intended leaden pipe. These tubes retain the core exactly in the middle of the cavity of the mould, and then the lead is poured in through an aperture in the shape of a funnel. When the mould is full a hook is put into the core, and, turning the mill, it is drawn out and the pipe is made. If it is to be lengthened, they put one end of it in the lower end of the mould, and the end of the core into it, then shut the mould again, and apply its rundle and tube as before, the pipe just cast serving for a rundle, &c. at the other end. Metal is again poured in, which unites with the other pipe, and so the operation is repeated, till the pipe is of the length required. Large pipes of sheet lead are made by wrapping the lead on wooden cylinders of the proper length, and then soldering in the edges. Solder is used by the Plumber for the purpose of securing the joints of lead- work in cases in which a lap or roll joint cannot be employed. It is a general rule with respect to solder, that it should always be easier of fusion than the metal which is intended to be soldered by it : next to this care must be taken that the solder be, as far as it be possible, of the same colour as the metal intended to be soldered. Soft solder is composed of tin and lead in equal parts fused together : after which it is run into moulds, in shape not unlike a gridiron. For com- mon purposes, however, a mixture of pewter and lead is more commonly used. The iron used in finishing or melting, in order to finish a joint in the process of soldering is called a grozing-iron. The different kinds of pumps and water-closets 260 Book of Trades. we have not room to describe ; we must therefore refer the student to more elaborate works. The lead which lines the Chinese tea-chests is reduced to a thinness which, we are informed, Europeans cannot imitate. The following account of the process in China is by an intelligent mate of an East Indiaman. The caster sits by a pot con- taining the melted metal, and has two large stones, the under one fixed, the upper moveable, directly before him. He raises the upper stone by pressing his foot upon the side of it, and with an iron ladle pours into the opening a proper quantity of the fluid metal. He then immediately lets fall the upper stone, and by that means forms the lead into a thin irregular plate, which is afterwards cut into a pro- per shape. The surfaces of the stones, where they touch each other, are exactly ground together. In the country it is not unfrequent to find that the business of a plumber, glazier, and painter, is united in the same person ; but the plumbing trade is of itself in London reckoned a very good one for the master. The health of the men is often in- jured by the fumes of the lead. Journeymen earn about thirty shillings a week ; and we recommend earnestly to lads brought up to either of the before-mentioned trades, that they cultivate cleanliness and strict sobriety, and that they never on any account eat their meals or retire to rest at night, before they have well washed theij^ hands and face. The Potter. THE POTTER. The Potter converts clay of various kinds, and mixed also with various ingredients, into utensils of innumerable shapes and sizes, for domestic and a variety of other purposes. Vessels capable of holding liquid food and drink for the use of man would be so essential to his im- mediate necessities, that the fabrication would doubtless be prior to the humblest cottage. Ves- sels formed by excavating pieces of wood and leather were in all probability prior to those of earthen- v/are. This manufacture is so ancient that we have no traces to the period of its invention. It was very common at different periods of Scripture History, as the well-known simile, of being broken in pieces like a potter 3 vessel, sufficiently indicates. The ancient Greeks and Etruscans particularly excelled in it ; but Porcelain, the most perfect spe- cies of pottery, has been made in China from time immemorial. It is very remarkable that the oldest specimen of China Porcelain does not differ in its essential qualities from the most recently manufac- tured : a strong proof that many centuries must have elapsed in bringing it to that state, unless con- trary to the usual progress of most arts it was prac- tised at once in the state in which it now is ; a most improbable supposition. There is strong ground for supposing that the art of pottery had been brought to great perfection in the East before it was known either in Africa 262 Book of Trades. or Europe. It was afterwards cultivated by the Egyptians, from whom it descended to the Greeks and Romans. A species of earthenware was manufactured in Persia, which was considered a great curiosity on accovmt of its metalHc lustre. The Romans appear to have cultivated this art to a considerable extent. The taste and elegance displayed in their vessels for ornamental decoration were doubtless borrowed from what the Greeks had long before practised : the country most celebrated for this art was the ancient Etruria. It was the ambition of the late Mr. Wedgewood to equal the manufacture of Etruria, after which he named the village which has grown out of his genius and industry. The potteries of this country, prior to his exertions and example, produced nothing but of a flimsy fabric, destitute of taste, and scarcely fit for domestic use. Since his time the manufac- tures of Staffordshire have been celebrated both at home and abroad. Stoke upon Trent, and Etruria above-mentioned, both in Staffordshire, are amongst the principal places in which the manufacture of earthenware is carried on. Worcester is also famed for fine Porcelain, as is Coal-port. This trade is subdivided into a variety of bran- ches : that is^ the Stoneware Potter, the Delf Pot- ter, the Maker of Portugal, or rather Brosely Ware, the common Earthenware Potter, the Maker of Queen's Ware, and many others ; we can only give a general outline of the whole. Clay and flints are the principal substances of which every kind of earthenware is made : clay alone shrinks and cracks, the flint gives it soHdity and strength. The wheel and the lathe are the chief instru- ments in the business of the pottery : the first is in- tended for large works, and the other for small ; the wheel is turned by a labourer, as represented in the The Potter. plate ; but the lathe is put into motion by the foot k pf the workman. I ' When the clay is properly prepared and made into lumps, proportioned to the size of the cup, plate, or other vessel to be made, the potter places one of the lumps upon the head of the wheel before him, which he turns round, while he forms the cavity of the vessel with his finger and thumb, con- tinuing to widen it from the middle, and thus turn- ing the inside into form with one hand while he proportions the outside with the other, the wheel being kept the whole time in constant motion. The mouldings are formed by holding a piece of wood or iron, cut into the shape of the moulding, to the vessel while the wheel is going round ; but the feet and handles are made by themselves, and set on by the hand ; and if there be any sculpture in the work, it is usually made in wooden moulds, and stuck on piece by piece on the outside of the vessel. When the vessel is finished, the workman cuts it off from the remaining part of the clay, and sets it aside to dry ; and when it is hardened sufficiently to bear removing without danger, it is covered with a glaz- ing, made of a composition of lead, and put into a furnace where it is baked. Some sorts are glazed by throwing sea-salt into the furnace among the dif- ferent pieces of pottery. The salt is decomposed, and its vapours form a glazing upon the vessels ; which is not, however, much esteemed : it was introduced into England by two brothers from Holland, of the name of Elers, about the year 1700, who settled in the neighbourhood of the Staffordshire potteries. English stone-ware is made of tobacco-pipe clay mixed with flints calcined and ground. This mix- ture burns white, and vessels of this kind were for- merly all glazed with sea-salt. Wedgewood's queen's-ware is made of tobacco pipe- clay, much beaten in water. By this process the finer parts of the clay remain suspended in the water, while the 264 Booh of Trades. coarser and all impurities fall to the bottonie The thick liquid is further purified by passing it through hair and lawn sieves, after which it is mixed with another liquid, consisting of flints calcined, ground, and suspended in water. The mixture is then dried in a kiln ; and being afterwards beaten to a proper temper, it becomes fit for being formed at a wheel into dishes, plates, bowls, &c. When this ware is to be put into a furnace to be baked, the several pieces of it are placed in cases made of clay, which are piled one upon another in the dome of the furnace ; a fire is then lighted, and the ware is brought into a proper temper for glaz- ing. By being baked, the ware acquires a strong property of imbibing moisture ; in this state it is called biscuit; and when dipped into the glaze, consisting of water made thick with white-lead and ground flints, it absorbs it into its pores, and the ware presently becomes dry. It is then exposed a second time to the fire, and the lead forms a glossy coat on the surface, which is more or less yellow according as a greater or less proportion of that metal has been used. The use of ground flints in the potteries was in- troduced in the following manner : about the year 1720, a potter travelling to London on horseback, had occasion to seek a remedy for a disorder in his horse's eyes : the hostler at the inn, by burning a flint-stone, reduced it to a fine powder, which he blew into them. The potter observing the beauti- ful white colour of the flint after calcination, in- stantly conceived the uses to which it might be applied in his art, and then introducing the white pipe-clay, found in the north of Devonshire, instead of the drossy clay of his own country, readily pro- duced the white stoneware. As a proof of the extent to which machinery is arrived in this country, we may mention here, that in the neighbourhood of Coal Port, in Shropshire, The Potter. 265 on the banks of the Severn is a water-wheel one hundred feet in diameter, which turns an apparatus for the purpose of reducing calcined flints to a pow- der for the making of English porcelain. This is a business which is of so multifarious a kind, that it is not easy to give an idea either of the capital necessary to carry it on, or of the wages of the workmen employed in it. But the finer branches require considerable capital, and the best workmen earn good wages. THE PRINTER, The Printer takes off impressions from charac- ters or figures moveable or immoveable, on paper, &:c. by the aid of ink and a suitable apparatus. There are several kinds of printing, one for cop- per-plates for pictures, which we have already de- scribed in page 103 of this work; another from blocks for printing calicoes, linens, &c. which will be found at page 65 ; our present article will treat of printing by moveable types, and the more recent introduction of stereotype, both employed for books. Printing was discovered at Haarlem, in Holland, by Coster, and the first book was printed in the year 1430. It was a Dutch piece of theology, printed only on one side of the leaf, and in imitation of ma- luiscript. The first attempts at printing were upon loose leaves, and the printed part was accompanied with cuts, somewhat in the manner of our present ballads. Coster's method was to cut out the letters upon a wooden block. He took for an apprentice John Fust, or Faustus, and bound him to secrecy. But Fust ran away with his master's materials, and set up for himself at Nantz. He had a servant called Peter Schoeffer, who first invented metal types. Fust seeing them, was so delighted, that he gave him, Schoeffer, his daughter in marriage, and made him his partner. The first book they printed is said to have been Cicero de Officiis, hetter Press Printer, The Printer. 267 which bears the date of 1495 ; but other books are mentioned with earher dates, 1457, 1442. They printed a number of bibles in imitation of manu- script, and Fust carried them to Paris for sale. The Parisians, upon comparing the different copies, were confounded at the exact similarity which they bore in every part, a similarity so great, that the most exact copyist could not have attained it. They accused Fust of being possessed of some diabolical art. This at once obliged him to discover the secret, and gave the origin of the story of Dr. Faustus. After the discovery of the art of printing, thus brought about at Paris, it quickly made its way over the whole of Europe. The first book printed in England is said to have been Rufinus on the Creed, printed at Oxford, in 1468. At first the impression was taken off wdth a list coiled up, as the card-makers use at this day. But when they came to use single types, they employed stronger paper, with vellum and parchment. At last tlie press was introduced, and brought gradually to its present state. The same observation applies to the ink. At first the common writing-ink was employed, and the printing-ink of lamp-black and oil, at present used, was introduced by degrees. Rolling-press printing was not used in England till the time of king James the First, and then it was brought from Antwerp by the illustrious John Speed. Letter-press printing is one of the most curious and important arts which the ingenuity of man has ever invented. It is to this art that v/e are indebted for our deliverance from ignorance and error ; for the progress of learning, — the revival of the sci- ences, — and numberless improvements in the arts, which would have either been lost to mankind, or confined to the knowledge of a few persons only. "To the art of printing," says Dr. Knox, ^*w€ 2 268 Book of Trades. owe the Reformation." If the books of Luther had been multiplied only by the slow process of hand-writing, they must have been few, and would have easily been suppressed by the combination of wealth and power ; but poured forth in abundance from the press, they spread over the land with the rapidity of an inundation, which acquires additional force from the efforts used to obstruct its progress. He who undertook to prevent the dispersion of books once issued from the press, attempted a task no less arduous than the destruction of the hydra. Resistance was in vain ; religion was reformed ; and w^e, who are chiefly interested in this happy revolu- tion, must remember, amidst the praises bestowed on Luther, that his endeavours would have been ineffectual, unassisted by the invention of printing. The art of printing, therefore, in whatever light it is viewed, claims the highest respect and atten- tion. From the ingenuity of the contrivance it has ever excited mechanical curiosity ; from its connec- tion with learning, and its influence on the human character, it is certainly the most important inven- tion with which the world has been benefitted ; and young people should endeavour to go through a printing-office after they have read this account of the art. The workmen employed in printing are of two kinds : compositors, who range and dispose the let- ters into words, lines, pages, &c. according to the copy delivered to them by the author ; and the pressmen^ who apply ink upon the same, and take off the impression. In the back-ground of the plate a compositor is represented at work, and a pressman is engaged at his business in the front. The letters, or, as they are usually called, the types, are made of a mixed metal ; (for the compo- sition of which see the article Type-founder,) they are disposed in cases, with separate divisions, called boxes, for the different letters. There are two cases The Printer, 269 for the purpose of containing the types^ called the upper and the lower case. In the upper are placed, in separate boxes, or divisions, the capitals, small- capitals, accented letters, figures, and the marks of reference ; in the lower are placed the small letters, also the double letters, the stops, and the spaces which go between the w^ords and fill up short lines. A pair of cases for the Roman types, and another for the Italic, are usually placed on each side the frame, and they stand sloping in such a manner as that every part shall be within the reach of the compositor. Having the letters pro- perly distributed, he lays the written copy before him, and begins to compose. He has a small frame, made of iron, called a composing-stick, in his left hand, in which he places the first letter of the first word of the copy, and the second, and so on till the word is finished ; he then puts a blank or space be- tween that and the next word : in this manner he proceeds till he has finished the line, when he goes on to the next ; but all the letters are reversed, that the impression may stand right on paper. When the composing-stick, which holds several lines, is full, the compositor empties it carefully into a frame of wood, called a galley. He then fills and empties the composing-stick as before, till a com- plete page is formed, when he ties it up with a cord, or packthread, and setting it b}^ proceeds to the next, till the number of pages to be contained in a sheet is composed; this being done, he carries them to the imposing-stone, there to be ranged in order, and fastened together in a frame, called a chase ; this is termed imposing. The chases are different, according to the number of pages contained in a sheet, that is, according as the work is in folio, quarto, octavo, &c. To dress the chase is to range and fix the pages, leaving the proper margin between them ; for this pur- pose the compositor makes use of a set of furniture, N 3 mo Book of Trades. .consisting of ^lips of wood of different dimensions ; some of these are placed at the top of the pages, and called head-sticks; others at the sides, called back-sticks and gutters. The pages being placed at their proper distances, are secured by the chase and furniture, and fastened together by means of little wedges of wood, called quoins, driven between the chase and the foot and side-sticks, with a wooden mallet and a piece of hard wood. In this state the work is called a form ; and as there are two forms required for every sheet, when both sides are to be printed, it is necessary that the distances between the pages in each form should be placed v/ith such exactness, that the impression of the pages in one form shall fall exactly on the back of the pages of the other ; this is called the register. As mistakes will occur, a sheet, which is called a proof, is printed off, and given to the corrector of the press, who examines it while a boy reads the copy to him, making the requisite alterations in the margin ; which being done, he gives the proof to the compositor to be corrected. This is done by unlocking the form upon the imposing-stone, loosen- ing the quoins, and taking out the wrong or faulty letters marked in the proof, which he lays before him, with a slender sharp-pointed steel bodkin, and putting others in their places. After this another proof is taken ; and having been again read by the corrector of the press, is sent to the author, who, if he wishes it, writes on it A revise,'' which signi- fies that another proof is to be sent to him, to see that all the mistakes marked in the last proof ai'e corrected. Here, then, the compositor's work is finished, and it is committed to the pressmen, whose business it is to work off the forms thus prepared and corrected ; in doing which four things are required, viz. paper, ink, balls, and a press. To prepare the paper for use, it is first to be wetted by dipping several sheets The Printer. S71 together in water; these are afterwards laid in a heap over one another ; and to make them take the water equally, they are all pressed down close with a weight at top. The ink is made of oil and lamp- black, well ground together. The balls by which the ink is applied on the forms, are a kind of wooden funnels with handles, the cavities of which are filled with wool, and this is covered with undressed sheep- skins, made extremely soft aud pliable. The press- man takes one of these in each hand, and having applied one of them to the ink-block, works them together till the ink is equally distributed, and then he blackens the form, which is placed on the press, by beating the face of the letters with the balls. The printing-press, represented in the plate, is a complex and a very curious machine, which will be readily understood by any person who is witness to the operation. Besides the machinery for pressing, there is a carriage, containing a large and polished stone, on which the form is placed; this is rolled backwards and forwards to receive the sheet, and deliver it when the impression is made. The form being laid on the stone and inked, the pressman takes a sheet of paper from the heap, and spreads it straight on a frame, called a tympany which confines a fold of blanket, or woollen cloth, between two sheets of parchment ; this is necessary to take the impression of the letters upon the paper. To the tympan is added a thin frame of iron, called 'dfrishet, which is covered with paper, cut in the necessary places, that the sheet, which is put be- tween the tympan and the frisket, may receive the ink without injuring the margins. To regulate the margins, a sheet of paper is fastened on the tympan, and on each side is fixed an iron point, which makes holes in the sheet, and the points are placed in the same holes when the impression is to be made oh the other side. The carriage containing the stone,, form, paper, N 4 272 Boole of Trades. &c. is now, by turning a handle, rolled under tlie screw, which, with two pulls of the handle, performs the business ; it is then rolled out again, and the paper taken off and laid on one side. The form is then again inked, and another sheet laid on, as before ; and this is continued till as many sheets are printed as the impression consists of. After one side of all the sheets is printed, another form, which contains the pages for the other side, is laid upon the press-stone, and printed off in the same manner. In general there are two pressmen to each press ; and then one man inks the form and the other does the rest of the work. When the required number of sheets are taken off, the form is to be separated, in order that the letters may be restored to theii* proper cases. The form is first washed in a strong ley, by means of a stout brush, and then with fair water. It is then laid on a board by the compositor, who unlocks it, and having loosened the lines, again washes it to free it completely from dirt. When he wants the type to compose another sheet, he takes out several lines at once upon a brass-rule, and taking a word or two at a time between his finger and thumb, replaces each letter into its proper divi- sion, and this is called distribution. Besides the several sorts of letters used in print- ing, there are likewise rules for black lines, borders^ and head and tail pieces. The rules for black lines are made of brass, and exactly the height of the letter. Borders, flowers, &c. are ornaments in the form of long bars, serving for the divisions of books^ chapters, &c. Head and tail pieces are cut either in wood or brass, or cast in metal. This is the usual method in which printing has been executed for a long period ; but besides vari- ous improvements of a minor kind, and the perform- ing of the operations of the printing-press by th^ assistance of the steam-engine^ which we shall pas& The Printer. 273 over, we cannot close our account of this important art without noticing the Stereotype printing, which has, for standard works, during the last fifteen years, been a good deal used. We have not room to give a history of this curious process ; but it appears that it was attempted in the middle of the last century, and met with so much opposition from the trade, that it was discounte- nanced. The mode of stereotype printing is this : first to set up a page in the usual way, and, when it is ren- dered perfectly correct, a cast of plaster of Paris, prepared from that which is found in Nottingham- shire, and said to be the best, being called gypsum- in-the-roek, is to be taken from it ; m this cast the metal for the stereotype is to be poured. The com- position of the metal will be found under our article Type-founder. Each page is, therefore, cast sepa- rate ; and, if made in the first instance correct, it cannot, by any possibility, except wear or fracture, become incorrect, nor, of course, can any of the letters be displaced, as the whole page consists of one solid piece of metal. The principal advantage, besides correctness, in stereotype, is, that proprie- tors of voluminous works need not print any more copies at a time than they choose, and hence a large expence in the capital of paper is thereby avoided. Journeymen printers, compositors and pressmen, will easily earn from thirty shilhngs to two guineas a week. The business of the pressman requires little genius, but a considerable portion of strength. A youth designed for a compositor ought to be well educated in his own language ; and he will find it of great advantage, in the course of his business, if he understands something of the modern and ancient languages. N 5 THE ROPE-MAKER. ^ ^ The Rope-maker is a person who twists several kinds of materials, and particularly hemp, into yarn, and afterwards several strings of such yarn, assisted ^^^^ ^ larger and more compact cord. When the article is of a small description it is called a cord, w^hen larger, a rope ; the largest is called a cable. Ropes are made of many vegetable substances that are sufficiently fibrous, flexible, and tenacious, but chiefly of the bark of plants. The Chinese and other orientals even make them of the woody parts of several plants, such as certain bamboos, and reeds, the stems of the aloes, the fibrous covering of the cocoa-nut, the filaments of the cotton-pocf, aiid the leaves of some grasses, such as sparte! The aloe and the sparte exceed all others in strength. But the barks of plants are the most productive of fibrous matter proper for this manufacture. Those of the willow, the linden-tree, the bramble, and the nettle, are frequently used ; but hemp and flax are the best; and of these hemp is preferred and em- ployed in all cordage exceeding the size of a line, and even in many of this denomination. The trade of a Rope-maker is unquestionably very ancient. As early as the fourteenth century, m France the Rope-makers were formed into a com- pany, and had statutes appointed for their regula- tion. In this country, where the navy has obtained The Hope Maker, The Rope-maker. 275 so much attention, a Rope-maker has, for a long period, been a trade of considerable importance. Ropes of all kinds are generally made of hemp, twisted or spun, something after the same manner as the spinning of wool ; and the places in which ropes are made are called rope-walks. These are sometimes a quarter of a mile or more in length, in the open air, and have a row or rows of trees planted beside them for shade, or are covered with a slight shed to keep the workmen from the inclemencies and changes of the weather. At the upper end of the rope-walk is a spinning- wheel, which is turned round by a person who sits on a stool or bench for the purpose ; the man who forms the rope or string, has a bundle of dressed hemp, such as that which lies on the truck in the plate, round his waist. From this he draws out two or more ends, and fixes them to a hook ; the wheel is now turned, by which the threads are twisted^ and as the spinner walks backward, the rope, or more properly the rope-yarn, is lengthened. The part already twisted draws along with it more fibres out of the bundle, and the spinner gives assistance to it with his fingers, supplying hemp in due pro- portion as he walks away from the wheel, and tak- ing care that the fibres come in equally from both sides of his bundle, and that they enter always witk their ends, and not by the middle, which would double them. The arrangement of the fibres, and the degree of twisting, depend on the skill and dex- terity of the spinner. The degree of twist depends on the rate of the wheel's motion, combined with the retrograde motion of the spinner. As soon as he has arrived at the lower end of the walk he calls out, and another spinner immediately detaches the yarn from the hook of the wheel, gives it to a third person, w^ho takes it to the reel, and the second spinner attaches his own hemp to the wheel- hook. In the meantime the first spinner keeps fapt 276 BooJc of Trades. hold of the end of his yarn, to prevent its untwist- ing, and as soon as the reeler begins to turn his reel, he goes slowly up the walk, keeping the yarn of an equal tightness all the way, till he arrives at the wheel, where he waits with his yarn in his hand till another has finished his yarn. The first spinner takes it off the wheel-hook, joins it to his own, that it may follow it on the reel, and begins a new yarn himself. The fibres of hemp are thus twisted Jnto yarns, and make a line of any length : down the rope-walk are a number of upright posts, with long pegs fixed in them at right angles ; on these pegs the spinner throws the rope-yarn as he proceeds, to prevent its swagging. As many fibres are made into one yarn, so many yarns are afterwards made into one rope, according to the use and strength required. By this process, which is called laying, it acquires a solidity and hardness which render it less penetrable by water^ that would rot it in a short time. Sometimes the union of several yarns is called a strand, and a larger rope is formed of two or more of these strands ; in this manner many cables and other ground tackle are commonly made. Cables and cords are frequently tarred, which is usually done in the state of yarn, this being the only method by which hemp can be uniformly penetrated. The yarn is made to wind oft from one reel, and having passed through a vessel containing hot tar, it is wound upon another, and the superfluous tar is taken ofif by passing through a hole surrounded w^ith spungy oakum ; or it is sometimes tarred in skeins or hauls, which are drawn by a capstern through the tar-kettle, and through a hole formed of two plates of metal. It is a fact, however, that tarred cordage is much weaker than white ; it is also less pliable and less durable; but the use of tar is aevertheleso neces- The Rope-maJcer. 277 sary to defend the cordage from the action of the water. Nets are made with small cords ; larger cords are used for tying up packages ; and ropes of all sizes and dimensions are used for shipping. A ship's cable is sometimes several hundred yards in length, and is worth a considerable sum of money. Mr. Chapman has lately obtained a patent for making ropes and cordage, the machinery of which consists only of a spindle, divided into two parts, the upper containing apparatus to draw forward the hemp from the spinner, with twist sufficient to combine the fibres, which enables him to employ women," children, and invalids, and also to appropri- ate the rope-ground solely to the purpose of laying ropes. The remaining part of his invention consists chiefly in the giving from a stationary power the in- ternal motion to a loco-motive machine, as to a roper's sledge, on v/hich the strands and the rope itself are twisted, by which contrivance a water- wheel, or a steam-engine, is applied to the whole process of making ropes of all kinds whatever. Other patents have been also obtained for im- proving this art ; but we have not room to enume- rate them. The master Rope-maker requires a considerable capital to carry on business upon a large scale. A journeyman may earn with ease from a guinea to a guinea and a half a week, or even more if he be sober and industrious. Yarn for sail-cloth is made of dressed-hemp, and spun in the same manner as rope-yarn is spun. The spinners of this make a good living ; women are chiefly employed in it. The person who shapes and sews together the sail-cloth, is called a sail- makex ; and is sometimes denominated a ship's^ tailor. THE SADLER. Makes seats adapted to the horse's back for the convenience of the rider ; he also makes bridles, girths, &c. The trade of a Sadler is also frequently joined to that of a Harness-maker, In the early ages, when the horse was trained to the use of man, the rider sat on the bare back of the animal ; but in the course of time a covering v/as used, which consisted of a dressed or undressed skin of some slaughtered beast. Such coverings became afterwards very costly ; they were decorated with many ornaments, and made large enough to hang down nearly to the ground. Six lions' hides, with thongs together fast, Kis upper parts defended to his waist, And where man ended, the continued vest Spread on hi§ back the house and trapping of a beast. Dkyden. But it was reckoned among the Romans more manly to ride on the bare back than upon cover- ings ; and Xenophon, in his Cyropcedia, reproaches the Persians for placing more clothes on the backs of their horses than on their beds ; and giving them- selves more trouble to sit easily than to ride skil- fully. The origin of saddles is very ancient, if it be true that the Selians, an ancient people of Franconia, w^ere the first inventors of them, as the name Sellcy the French word for saddle, would seem to import. Saddler, The Sadler: 279 However, it is certain, that neither saddles nor stir- rups were in use amongst the early ages of the Roman Republic. Galen assures us, in many of his medical works, that the Romans were subject to frequent diseases of the hip, in consequence of their feet not being supported when they were on horse- back ; and Hippocrates has made the same observa- tion relative to the Scythians. There is reason to believe, notwithstanding, about a century ago, a saddle used to be shown at Bern, as the same on which Julius Caesar rode, that saddles were not used by the Romans till the year 340 of the Chris- tian asra. Before this period square pannels were used, such as we see in the Capitol on the eques- trian statue of Antoninus : it was also in this cen* tury that Theodosius forbad the use of saddles weighing more than sixty pounds. A saddle consists of a wooden frame, called a saddle-tree, on which is laid a quantity of horse- hair, wool, &c. and this is covered over with tanned leather, neatly nailed to the wooden tree. To keep' the saddle steady on the horse, the crupper is used, which passes under the creature's tail; and girths to prevent it from turning round. To support the legs of the rider, a pair of stirrups is also added, one of which is very useful in assisting to mount the animal ; to prevent the saddle galling the horse's back, a saddle-cloth is sometimes used. The articles made use of in the manufacture of these things are more or less costly, according to the price which the purchaser pays for his goods. Cutting-knives, hammers, and pincers, are the chief implements of the trade ; that is, of the per- son employed in the manufacture of saddles. To complete a single article in the business, the aid of many different artizans is required. The tree-maker furnishes only the wooden part of the saddle ; this is, however, a very important branch of the business ; because upon the saddle- 7 280 Booh of Trades. tree the fitting of the saddle depends ; and in cases when gentlemen wish to have their saddles fit pro- perly, it is as necessary to measure the horse's back as for the shoe-maker to measure his customer for boots or shoes. The saddle-tree maker requires no great strength or ingenuity. The Sadler's iron-monger furnishes him with the iron or steel stirrups, buckles of all kinds, bits for bridles, and other steel or brass furniture required for the harness of a horse, either for riding or draw- ing in a carriage. Many of these articles are origi- nally made by the iron-founder. There is also a distinct trade, called a horse's milliner, who makes roses for bridles, and other articles used in highly-ornamented caparisons. This tradesman should have an inventive genius, and a considerable share of taste, to set off the furniture belonging to a horse, and decorate it in a neat and elegant style. The saddler makes all sorts of bridles, coach and chaise harness ; of course, besides the trades already noticed as peculiarly belonging to his buwsiness, he employs the tanner, or leather-cutter, the currier, the embroiderer, who works devices, crests, and coats of arms, in gold, silver, or worsted. He buys broad-cloths and other woollens of the draper ; vel- vet and silk of the mercer ; ribbands of the weaver ; gold and silver and livery lace from the lace-man ; buckram, thread, &c. from the haberdasher. Of all these articles he should, for the sake of his custom- ers, be a good judge. A great number of saddles are exported to foreign parts, particularly to the East Indies ; as English saddles are in great repute there. There are many different kinds of saddles, as the hunting-saddle, the racing-saddle, ladies' saddles, called also side-saddles, &c. The Sadler requires a considerable capital if he is in a large way, and called upon to give much The Sadler. 281 credit ; in general^ however, this is not one of the trades which requires a very large stock. The journeymen, in ahnost every branch of the saddlery business, work by the piece, and may earn a good living. They none of them require great strength ; the men always work in the dry, and in most of the branches cleanliness, which is no small requisite in the mechanical arts, is a principal one* THE SAWYER Is a person who cuts the trunks of trees of various kinds into beams, planks, &c. for the use of carpen- ters and joiners for the purposes of building. In the early periods of the world the trunks of trees were split by wedges into as thin pieces as possible by that mode ; and if it were necessary to have them still thinner, they were hewn on both sides by hatchets till they were reduced to a proper size. The common saw, which requires only to be guided by the hand of the workman, was not known in America when it was discovered and subjugated by Europeans. The saw is undoubtedly one of the most useful instruments in the mechanic arts ever invented. Among the Greeks, the inventor has been enrolled in their mythology among the gods, and honoured as one of the greatest benefactors of the human race. The invention is attributed to Icarius, the son of Daedalus, who is said to have taken the first hint from the spine, or back-bone of a flat-fish. The saws of the Grecian carpenters had the same form, and were made in the like ingenious manner as ours are at present. This is fully shewn by a painting still preserved among the antiquities of Herculaneum. Saws are of various kinds ; the principal are the following : The pU-saWy which is a large two-handed saw, The Sawyer. 283 used to saw timber in pits ; this is chiefly used by the sawyers. The ivhip'Saw, which is also two-handed, used in sawing such large pieces of stuff as the hand-saw will not easily reach. The hand'Saw is made to be used by one man ; there are various kinds of hand-saws: the tenon- saw, which, being very thin, has a back to keep it from bending; the compass-saw, which is very small, and its teeth usually not set; its use is to cut a round or any other compass-kerf ; hence the edge is made broad and the back thin, that it may make room for it to be turned. The best saws are of tempered steel ground bright and polished : the edge in which the teeth are is always thicker than the back. The teeth are cut and sharpened by a file. When filed the teeth are to be set, that is, turned askew, or out of a right line, (by an instrument called a saw-set,) to make the fissure wider, that the back may follow with ease. This is done by putting the instrument on every tooth, and giving it a little wrench or bend ; one of the teeth is turned in one direction, and the other in a contrary one. The teeth are always set ranker for coarse cheap work than for that which is hard and fine. The pit-saw, such as is represented in the plate, is a large two-handed saw, used to saw timber in pits. It is set rank for coarse stuff, so as to make a fissure of about a quarter of an inch wide. The timber to be sawed is laid on a frame over an oblong pit, called a saw-pit, which is an improve- ment of modern times, as the power of a man stand- ing in a pit must far exceed that which is exerted by him in a sitting posture. By means of a long saw, fastened in a frame, which is worked up and down by two men, one standing on the wood to be cut and the other in the pit, the operation of sawing is performed. As they proceed in their work, they 28* Book of Trades. drive wedges at a proper distance from the saw to keep the fissure open, which enables the saw to move with freedom. The most beneficial and ingenious improvement is the saw-mill, which is worked either by water, by wind, or by steam. A saw-mill consists of several parallel saws, which are made to rise and fall per- pendicularly by means of a mechanical motion. A very few hands are necessary to conduct this opera- tion, to push forward the pieces of timber, which are either laid on rollers or suspended by ropes, in proportion as the sawing advances. But the sawing-machines worked by steam in the block house in Portsmouth dock-yard, convey to the spectator the nature of mechanical operation in the completest manner possible. The manufacture of blocks in that place cannot fail to interest every one who has the slightest turn for mechanics; and a person must be devoid of all curiosity who can visit Portsmouth, and return without making every effort to be introduced into this part of the dock-yard. This is a very laborious employment ; yet two industrious men may earn from twelve to eighteen shillings a day. Shipwright, THE SHIPWRIGHT Is a person who builds ships: a ship has been defined a timber-building, consisting of various parts and pieces, nailed and pinned together with iron and wood, in such form as to be fit to float, and to be conducted by wind and sails from sea to sea. The word ship is a general name for all large vessels with sails, adapted for navigation on the sea; but by sailors the term is more particularly apphed to a vessel furnished with three masts, each of which is composed of a lower-mast, a top-mast, and a top-gallant-mast. The first attempts which mankind made in navi- gation were beyond a doubt very ancient ; but it was not till after a long time, and considerable efforts and labour, that they became enabled to construct large floating houses, capable of encountering the tempests of the winds and waves. A thousand opportunities would of course pre- sent themselves to the eyes of mankind in the earliest ages of the w^orld to excite the idea of float- ing on the water, but nothing more readily than a tree torn up by the winds, and floating down the stream of a river. It would be easy afterwards to collect a number of trees, or other floating pieces of wood, and by proper ligatures form a raft. To the raft most probably succeeded the canoe, composed in the first place out of an old hollow tree; from the facility with which the canoe can be managed, 1 286 Book of Trades. canoes^ among the most savage nations, have been very early in use. At what period the art of ship-building com- menced it is not easy to determine ; but the con- struction of boats must have preceded that of ships.. The ark of Noah is we believe the earliest record which we have of any building made expressly to float on the water. Ships are, however, since the ^ time of the deluge frequently mentioned in the Scriptures. In the time of Homer, also, ships were in great use : the catalogue of the Grecian ships forms a considerable part of one of the Books of the Iliad. But there is great reason to believe that all the^ ships of antiquity were comparatively of small di- mensions : it has been reserved for modern times, commercial speculation, and modern warfare, to demonstrate the improved powers and capacities of man for this extraordinary art. The man of science and the practical ship-wright have long lamented that, in the theory of the art of ship-building, there are so few fixed and positive principles established by demonstration, or con- firmed by practice; thus the artist being left to the exercise of his own opinion, in general resists theo- retical propositions, however speciously formed, so hard has it ever been found to overcome habitual prejudices. The great neglect of the theory of ship-building is much to be deplored in a country like this, where the practical part is so well under- stood and executed. Mathematics, engineering, and civil or house architecture, are sciences nourish-^ ed and taught in our universities and other schools; and to whatever degree of superiority scholars may arrive in these, shew them shipping draughts, or talk to them of the science of ship-building, and they appear as much at a loss as though they had never heard of such an art. This, however, is the ? The Shipwright, 28T jpietuie of a few years ago ; it is now begun to be studied under the denomination of naval architec- ture ; for the promotion of this science, a very re- spectable body of ingenious men have, for the last fifteen years, associated. In ship-building three things are necessary to be considered ; first, to give the vessel such a form as shall be best adapted for sailing, and for the service for which she is designed ; secondly, tp unite the several parts into a compact frame ; and thirdly, to provide suitable accommodations for the officers and crew, as well as for the cargo, furniture, provisions, guns, and ammunition. The outside figure of the ship includes the bot- tom or the hold, and the upper works, which are also called the dead-works; the first is that part which is generally under, the second are those which are usually above it when the vessel is laden. To give a proper shape to the bottom of the ship, it is necessary to consider the service for which she is designed. A ship of war should be able to sail swiftly, and carry her lower tier of guns fijur or five feet out of the water ; a merchant'ship ought to be able to contain a large cargo of goods, and to be navigated with few hands ; both of these should, be able to carry sail firmly ; to steer well ; and to sustain the shocks of the sea without being violently strained. Ships are built principally with oak'timbery which is the stoutest and strongest wood we have ; and, therefore, best fitted both to keep sound under water, and to bear the blows and shocks of the waves, and the terrible strokes of cannon-balls^ For this last purpose it is a pecuhar excellence of the oak, that it is not so liable to splinter or shiver as other wood, so that a ball can pass through it without making a large hole. The great use of oak for the structure of nier- 288 Book of Trades. chant-ships, as well as for men of war, is referred to by Mr. Pope : While by our oaks the precious loads are borne, And realms commanded which those trees adorn. During the construction of a ship she is supported in the dock, or upon a wharf, by a number of solid blocks of timber, placed at equal distances from, and parallel to, each other ; in which situation she is said to be on the stocks. The first piece of timber laid upon the stocks is generally the keel, which at one end is let into the stern-post, and at the other into the stem. If the carcase of a ship be compared to the skeleton of a human body, the keel may be considered as the back-bone, and the timbers as the ribs. The stern is the hinder-part of the ship, near which are the state-room, cabins, &c. To the stern-post is fixed the iron-work that holds the rudder, which directs the course of the vessel. The stem is a circular piece of timber in the front ; into this the sides of the ship are inserted. The outside of the stem is usually marked with a scale, or division of feet, according to its perpen- dicular height from the keel ; the intention of this i« to ascertain the draught of water at the fore-part, when the ship is in preparation for a sea-voyage. In the plate the shipwright is represented stand- ing at the stern on a scaffold, and driving in the wedges with his wooden trunnel. The holes are first bored with the auger, and then the wedges driven in ; these are afterwards cut off with a saw. At his feet lie his saw ; his auger, which is used for boring large holes ; his axe ; and punches of differ- ent sizes. i The caulking of a ship is a very important opera- tion ; it consists in driving oakum, (which is old ropes untwisted, and the substance pulled or beaten The Shipwright. 289 into loose hemp,) into the seams between the planks, to prevent the ship's leaking. It is afterwards covered with hot melted pitch or rosin, to prevent its rotting. A mixture w^as formerly used for covering the bottom of ships, made of one part of tallow, one of brimstone, and three of rosin ; this is called paying the bottom. The sides and bottom are now usually payed with coal-tar, the produce of England. To enable ships to sail well, the outsides in con- tact with the water are frequently covered with copper. The masts of ships are made of fir or pine, on account of the straightness and lightness of the wood. The length of the main-mast of an East India ship is about eighty feet. The masts always bear a cer- tain proportion to the breadth of the ship ; what- ever the breadth may be, multiply that by twelve, and divide the product by five, which will give the length of the main-mast. Thus, a ship which mea- sures thirty feet at the broadest part, will have a main-mast seventy-two feet long ; the thickness of the mast is estimated by allowing one inch for every three feet in length ; accordingly a mast seventy-two feet long must be twenty four inches thick. For the other masts different proportions are to be used. To the masts are attached the yards, sails, and rigg- ing, which receive the wind necessary for navigation. When a ship is finished building, it is next to be launched; that is, slipped off the stocks into the water. To render the operation of launching easy, the ship, when first begun to be built, is supported by two strong platforms, laid with a gradual incli- nation to the water. Upon the surface of this de- clivity are placed two corresponding ranges of planks, which compose the base of the frame, called the cradle, to which the ship's bottom is securely attached. The planes of the cradle and platform are well greased, and then the blocks and ivedges, by o 290 Booh of Trades. which the ship was supported, are driven out from under the keel; afterwards the shores, by which she is retained on the stocks, are cut away, and the ship sHdes down into the water. Ships of the first rate are usually constructed in dry docks, and afterwards floated out, by throwing open the flood-gates, and suffering the tide to enter, as soon as they are finished. In a dock-yard where ships are built, six or eight men, called quartermen^ are frequently entrusted to build a ship, and engage to perform the business for a certain sum, under the inspection of a master- builder. These employ other men under them, who, according to their different departments, will earn from fifteen or twenty shillings to two or three pounds per week. Shoe Maker. THE SHOE-MAKER Makes covering for the feet, usually of leather ; but frequently also of other materials, as silk, jean, nankeen, &c. He also makes boots of various kinds, both for ladies and gentlemen. There are few trades more useful than that of a shoe-maker, and, perhaps, not many that are more profitable, when it is carried on to a considerable extent. Some shoe-makers carry on a snug private trade, without any show; others have large shops, and exhibit in them shoes of all sorts for ladies and gentlemen, together with boots, gaiters, and spat- terdashes. It appears from history, that the Jews, long before the Christian aera, wore shoes made of leather or wood; those of their soldiers v/ere sometimes formed out of brass or iron. The Egyptians wore a kind of shoe made of the papyrus. The Indians, the Chinese, and other nations, wore shoes made of silk, of rushes, of linen, of wood, of the bark of trees, of iron, of brass, and of gold and silver ; and luxury has sometimes covered them with precious stones. The Greeks and Romans wore shoes of leather : the Grecian shoes generally reached to the middle of the leg: the Romans used two kinds of shoes ; the calceus^ which covered the v*^hole foot, something in the shape of our shoes ; and the solea^ or slipper, which covered only the sole of the foot, and v/as fastened with leather thongs ; the calceus was worn with the toga when a person went abroad, o 2 292 Book of Trades. and slippers were put on during a journey, and at feasts. Black shoes were worn by the citizens of ordinary rank, and white ones by women. Red shoes were put on by the chief magistrates of Rome, on days of ceremony. In Europe, about one thousand years ago, the greatest princes wore shoes having the upper part of leather, and the under of wood. In the reign of William Rufus, the shoes of the great had long sharp points, stuffed with tow, and twisted like a ram's horn. The clergy preached against these points; they continued, however, to increase till the reign of Richard the Second, when they were tied to the knees with chains of silver or gold. At length parliament interfered by an act in the year 1463, and prohibited the use of shoes or boots with pikes exceeding two inches in length : and the shoe- makers were forbidden, under severe penalties, to make them contrary to the statute. To render this business profitable, a considerable degree of knowledge is required with regard to the properties of leather, and an accurate judgment to cut the leather in such a manner as to yield the greatest quantity with the least waste. The master shoe-maker, or, if he be in a very large way, his foreman, measures his customers, and cuts out leather for his work-people to put together. In some instances, especially in the country, he is the leather-cutter to all the little traders in the sur- rounding villages. In this case, he buys the leather in skins and half-hides from the dresser, and cuts them out into soles and upper-leathers, which he either uses in his own business, or sells to those who cannot afford to go to a wholesale market. In the p^ate is the representation both of th6 master and journeyman shoe-maker. The former is cutting out an upper-leather of a shoe to a paper pattern, which lies upon it. A small leaden weight is placed on the skin at the corner, to keep it from The Shoe-Maker. slipping : on his left lies the hammer, which he uses to beat down any rough parts which stand on the inside of the leather: and on his right hand is a pair of pincers, which are made with teeth, in order to hold the leather tight in the act of stretching it. The journeyman is in the act of joining the upper- leather to the sole of the shoe : on his bench near him are his awl, his knife, and a stone with which he sharpens his tools. Before him, on his right, are the hammer and lap-stone, and on the other side, a tub of water, in which he keeps a quantity of wax in balls. These are the principal implements of his trade. He sews the leather with thread, waxed over, and thereby made a strong and durable sub- stance ; as, however, he makes no use of a needle, to the end of the thread is fastened a hog's-bristle, which guides the thread through the holes made in the leather with an awl. Shoe-makers' wax is commonly made by melting together about equal parts of pitch and yellow rosin ; but in warm weather it is necessary to have a greater proportion of rosin than in the winter, which pro- portion is best judged of by the workman himself. For ladies' light-coloured shoes, and other fine work, different wax is of course used. I The best and strongest thread for shoe-makers' stout and firm work is made of hemp ; but latterly a good deal of flax has been used in the trade, which is by no means so strong or durable a material. Shoes and boots are made on lasts, which are manufactured of some soft wood, by means of an engine, or knife, such as that which we have de- scribed in the brush-maker's trade. The same man that makes the lasts makes also the wooden heels for women's shoes. The last for shoes is made of a single piece of wood, to imitate the foot ; but that for boots is slit into two parts, between which a wedge is driven when the boot-leg is desired to be stretched. o 3 294 BooJc of Trades. Shoe -makers use large quantities of Morocco- leather, which is the skin of a goat, dressed in su- mac, or gall, and coloured at pleasure. Journeymen in this trade are distinguished into women's shoe-maker's and those who make shoes and boots for men. Few can follow both branches with advantage ; greater ingenuity is required in manufacturing women's shoes, because the seams must be neater, as the materials are much finer. A journeyman shoe-maker, if he be a good hand, sober, and industrious, will earn thirty shillings a week. Women are employed to bind shoes of ail kinds, and to sew the quarters together of those that are made of silk, satin, stuffs, &c. The Smith, THE SMITH. A Smith is one who works on iron, and who from that metal manufactures a vast variety of articles useful in the arts of life, and of great importance to domestic comfort* The smith is one of those workmen whose assist- ance becomes necessary even in a rude state of so- ciety, and in the fii'st dav/nings of civilization : it is not easy to point out when the occupation of the smith was distinguished as a distinct branch of trade, but v/e learn from the scriptures, that such persons had existed at a very early period, for they are there distinguished as worliers in iron. There are at the present time several branches in this trade: some are called black-smiths ; of this class is the man represented in the plate : others are called wliite-smiths or bright-smiths; these polisli their v/ork to a considerable degree of nicety ; some include in their business bell-hanging, which is now carried to great perfection ; others are chiefly em- ployed in the manufacture of locks and keys. In the Sniith's shop there must be a forge, an anvil and block, a vice fastened to an immoveable bench, besides hammers, tongs, files, punches, and pincers of different sorts. The forge is the most prominent article ; it is re- presented in the plate on the left hand of the smith. The forge is a sort of furnace, intended for heating metals so hot as to render them malleable, and fit to be formed into their various shapes. The back of the forge is built upright to the ceiling, and i^ 296 Book of Trades. enclosed over the fire-place with a hovel which leads into the chimney, to carry away the smoke. In the back of the forge, against the fire-place, is a thick iron plate, with a pipe fixed to it, to receive the nose of the bellows. The bellows is behind the forge, and is worked by means of a rocker, with a string or chain fastened to it, which the smith, or his la- bourer, pulls. One of the boards of the bellows is fixed, and by drawing down the handle of the rocker, the moveable board, which is also the upper one, rises, and by means of a w^eight on the top sinks again ; and by this alternate motion, the fire is raised to the desired degree of heat. In the front of the forge, but a little below it, is a trough of ivater, which is useful for wetting the coals to make them throw out a greater heat ; the water serves also for cooling the tongs with which the smith holds the heated iron, and which in a short time becomes too hot for him to grasp : in this trough also the smith hardens his iron, by dipping it while red hot. The Smith in the plate is represented in the act of forging a piece of iron which he has just taken from the fire with the tongs in his left hand. Iron is hammered or forged two ways : either by the force of the hand, in which there are sometimes several persons employed, one holding and turning the iron, and hammering likewise, while the others hammer only with what are called sledge hammers, such as that which stands on the ground of the plate resting against the block : or it is done by the force of a water-mill, which raises and works several enormous hammers ; under the strokes of these the men have only to present the large lumps of iron, which are sustained at one end by the anvils, and at the other by iron chains fastened to the ceiling of the forge. This last method is employed in the largest works, such as the making of anchors of &hips, which weigh several thousand pounds. The Smith. 297 In lighter works, such as we have in the plate, namely, in the making of stoves, shovels, gridirons, tripods, &c. &c. a single man is sufficient to hold, to heat, and to turn the iron with one hand, while he strikes it with the other. The several heats given by smiths to their iron are called the blood-red heat, the white heat, and the welding heat. The blood-red heat is used when the iron has already acquired its form and size, but wants ham- mering only to smooth and ±it it for the file. The white heat is used when the iron has not its form and size, but must be forged into both. The welding heat is required when two pieces of iron are to be united. The welding of cast steel and cast iron has been in this trade attended v/ith considerable difficulty, and indeed has been by some persons deemed im- pi^acticable ; but late experiments have demon- strated that not only cast steel may be welded to ii'on, but that cast iron may be united to itself, with much more ease than has been commonly imagined. The method now adopted for welding cast- steel to iron, is not to heat it to so high a temperature as it is necessary to heat iron for welding, as the welding heat of steel is considerably below that of iron. Cast iron bars, it is now found, can also be united by the use of a proper flux, glass of borax is usually preferred, their ends being previously enclosed in a wrought-iron tube, and heated to a proper degree, the tube serving as a mould to prevent the fixed cast iron from falling asunder during the operation. The uppermost surface of the anvil, on which a smith hammers his iron, must be very flat and smooth, and so hard that no file will touch it. At one end of the anvil is a hole in which may be placed a strong steel chisel or spike ; on this a piece of red liot iron may be laid, and cut in two with a single stroke of the hammer. Anvils are sometimes made o 5 298 Book of Trades. of cast iron ; but the best are those which are forged with the upper part made of steel. The whole is usually mounted on a firm wooden block. The vice fixed to the bench serves to hold any thing upon which the smith is at work, whether it requires filing, bending, or riveting. There are hand vices and small anvils, which are occasionally used in the more delicate operations of this busi- ness. Square and flat bars of iron are sometimes twisted for ornamental work; this is done by giving the metal a white heat, fixing it in the vice, and turning it with the tongs. Iron rails before houses are generally made of cast-iron, which is run from the ore, and neither requires nor will bear the hammer : it is brittle and will not readily yield to the file. It is the business of the blacksmith to make the upper rail to receive these bars, and to fix them into the stone-work. It would be impossible to enumerate all the arti- cles manufactured by the smith ; they are of all kinds, and of almost all values. Steel stoves have been made at Brodie's manufactory in Carey-street, of several hundred pounds value ; and a more in- teresting sight cannot be well viewed, than the store-rooms of our large furnishing ironmongers. A journeyman smith will earn from three to five shillings per day ; but those who work on the fine polished articles will earn much higher wages. The Soap Boiler, THE SOAP-BOILER. The Soap-boiler makes the article called Soap, which is composed of an oil and an alkaline salt, for the purpose of washing linen, the hands, and other domestic and manufacturing operations. The combination of an oil with an alkali uni- formly produces a compound, soluble in water, and in which the characteristic properties of oils and alkalies are destroyed or changed. But as combi- nations of soda and potash are only employed in this business, we shall of course confine ourselves to a particular consideration of them. It is probable that ages must have elapsed before mankind arrived at a knowledge of the composition of soap. Saponaceous plants, argils, marls, fuUer's- eartli, a species of argil, extensively, and in an early period, known, and magnesia, appear all to have been employed in cleansing linen and other cloths, long before the discovery of soap. We even see that some animal matters were employed with ad- vantage for the same purpose. It is equally cer- tain, that the use of ash-leys preceded the discovery of soap. But the capability of combining oil v/ith alkaUj so as to form a solid compound, soluble in water, and which can dissolve spots of grease with- out changing the colour of the stuffs on which they are found, is a discovery of inestimable value in the arts. This discovery, successively improved, con- stitutes what is now termed the art of soap-making. There is scarcely any substance manufactured o 6 300 Book of Trades. by the art of man more useful than that of soap : at first sight it may seem strange, that the article which is used to clean and whiten other substances, should itself be formed of grease or oil, and that the coarsest fat may be made into soap. Soap is either hard or soft ; it is variously named, according to its colour : we have white, mottled, yellow soap, &c. But all the kinds are made with iat or oil, combined with either potash or soda ; but principally with soda, unless a soft soap is wanted, as potash liquifies upon exposure to atmospheric air, whereas soda effloresces, or, in other words, parts with the water which it contains, and therefore is the most proper for hard-soaps. Potash is an alkaline salt, obtained from veget- ables in the following manner : vegetable substances of any kind, burnt in the open air, and reduced to ashes, contain a certain proportion of salt, which is to be obtained from the ashes by mixing them with water: when the water is filtered, it is to be eva- porated by heat, and the saline substance the po- tash, or if it be very fine and white, the pearl-ash, is left at the bottom of the vessel. Soda is generally obtained in this country from an article imported from Spain called barilla, which consists of the ashes of a plant named soda, which grows plentifully in some parts of that country, par- ticularly on the shores of the Mediterranean. Both potash and soda are called fixed alkalies, because they are not commonly dissipated by heat ; the /b/- iner is also sometime denominated vegetable alkali ; the latter, mineral alkali ; distinctions which are neither correct, nor of any real use in science. These alkalies, as they are usually found, cannot be employed in the manufacture of soap till they are deprived of their carbonic acid, and the earthy matters which they contain. This process is con^ ducted in the following manner : into a vessel about eight feet square, and one foot deep, is introduced 7 The Soap-boiler. 301 quicMhney in the proportion of one-fifth of the weight of oil intended to be converted into soap : water is shghtly sprinkled over the quickUme, which then grows hot, cracks, smokes, and falls down into powder ; after which the soda or barilla, previously pounded, must be carefully mixed with it by means of a shovel. In order to favour the operation, a little water is occasionally added. As soon as the mixture is accomplished, it is transferred into tubs. In small establishments the vessels are made of v/hite wood ; but in those which are on a larger scale, they are composed of stones, lined with bricks, formed on the spot, and sunk into a mortar made of puzzolana, or similar earths. These cisterns are usually about five feet by four, and one and a half in depth. They are perforated at the lower part of the side, next the workhouse, with two holes, which are closed by stop-cocks, or pegs of wood. Under each of these vessels are reservoirs, con- structed with the same care, and intended for the reception and preservation of the leys, when the lime and soda is transferred to the tub, or to these cisterns, a quantity of water is poured on the mix- ture, sufficient to cover it to the height of a foot and a half. After leaving the water in this state for several hours, it is drawn off into one of the reser- voirs. This ley marks from fifteen to twenty de- grees of concentration, and is called the first ley. Water is to be again put upon the mixture, and to stand, and afterwards to be drawn off as before : this is termed the second ley : and the operation is repeated as long as ley of any power comes from the mixture. In large manufactories, such as that represented in the plate, the ley is made no stronger than to be able to sustain a new-laid egg. The oil or tallow, is first boiled with a part of the ley, which may be diluted with water, till the whole is formed into a soapy compound. The stronger ley is then to be S02 Book of Trades^ added, and kept slowly boiling, while a person, as represented in the upper part of the plate, assists the union by constant agitation. When it is sufli- ciently boiled, a separation will appear to be taking place ; the soap being at top and the fluid below : to effect this separation completely, a quantity of common salt is added. The materials are usually boiled three or four hours, vAien the fire is with- drawn. The soap is found to unite at the top of the liquor, which is now called the waste ley, and being of no further use it is drawn off. The soap is now melted with another ley, and when a little boiled it is cast into wooden frames, such as those represented in the plate. These frames are moveable, and range exactly one upon the other, and the soap is filled in from the bottom to the top. When it is perfectly set and cold, the workman takes off the upper frame, and with a piece of copper wire he cuts off the soap which that frame contained. In this part of the business, the man on the floor in the plate is represented as en- gaged. He then takes off another frame, and so (m till he comes to within five or six of the bottom, and there he finds the ley has drained from the soap into the middle of the substance ; of course, from this height to the bottom, the cakes of soap have an oval hole left in them. This ley he takes care- fully out with an iron ladle, and puts into the bucket which stands before him. By a like process he cuts the soap into narrow slices, as it is usually sold in the shops. The tallow for making soap is reckoned very good if 13cwt. of it with alkali yield a ton weight of soap. tVhife soap is made of olive oil and soda. Yel- low soap is made with tallow and yellow rosin, in the proportion of ten parts of tallow and three and a half of rosin ; these, if good, v/ill, with alkali, yield twenty of soap. The Soap-boiler o 303 Mottled soap obtains its speckled appearance by dispersing the ley through the soap towards the end of the operation, or by adding a quantity of sulphate of iron, which, by its decomposition, de- posits its oxide through the soap, and gives it the appearance of streaked marble. Some manufac- turers use oxide of manganese for the same pur- pose. We believe, however, that the colouring in- gredient, in the mottled soap of London, is indigo. Certain it is, that the soap known in commerce by the name of Castile soap, (the best, however, of this sort is brought from Marseilles,) is an oil soap, united with a considerable quantity of the sulphate of iron, in the decomposition of which the beautiful marbling of that soap is effected. In France a cheap soap is made by using woollen rags, old woollen cloths, and even the horns, &c. of animals, instead of oil. These substances are soluble in caustic ley, and by proper boiling form soap ; but it has a very disagreeable smell. Soap is easily and completely dissolved in water ; but in hard water it curdles, or is only imperfectly dissolved ; on this account, a solution of soap in spirits of wine is used to discover whether the water of any spring or pond be hard or soft ; for if the water be soft, the solution will unite with it ; but if it be hard, the soap will separate in flakes. The soap-manufacturer is subject to the excise laws ; iand he pays a heavy duty for every pound of soap which he makes. His coppers, and even his furnace-doors, are furnished with locks and keys, and he dares not open them but in the presence of an excise officer, and he must give notice of twenty- four hours or more in writing to the officers before he begins making. His house is no longer an Englishman's castle, into which none may come but by his leave ; the excise officers are required to enter it at all times, by day or by night ; who may, be- tween the hours of five in the morning and eleven 6 304 Book of Trades, at night, unlock and examine every copper, and every part of the dwelhng-house, none daring to obstruct them, without incurring very heavy penal- ties. To similar restrictions the tallow-chandler and other trades under the excise laws are subject. The soap-manufacturer must also take out an annual licence from the excise-office, besides being f^ubject to these fiscal regulations. thinner. THE SPINNER; The Spinner reduces silk, flax, hemp, wool, hair^, &c. by means of a machine, into thread. In many country villages the art of spinning is carried on by women and children in the open air. The art of spinning wool and other materials is of the highest antiquity, and must of course have preceded the art of weaving. The process of reducing cotton wool into yarn or thread, was for a long series of years performed by the hand, upon a machine which is called the one thread loheel, for the origin of which instrument we might possibly search in vain. In the reign of George the Second, several machines were con- structed for facilitating the spinning of cotton, but without producing any material advantage, till about 1767, Mr. James Hargrave constructed a machine by which a great number of threads (from twenty to eighty,) might be spun at once, and for which he obtained his Majesty's letters patent. This machine is called Jenny, and is considered as the best con- trivance for spinning what is called woof or shiitey that has hitherto appeared. It is now commonly constructed for eighty-four threads ; and with it one person can spin a hundred English hanks in the day, each hank containing eight hundred and forty yards. Spinning by hand is either performed by the dis- taff and spindle, or on the wheel ; in the former case the person sits at her work ; in the latter she 306 Book of Trades. stands, or rather runs backwards and forwards. We shall describe both methods. When the dis- taff and spindle are used, the flax or other substance ,{ is tied or fixed on a long stick : the spinner draws out a thread, which she fixes to a spindle; then with her left hand she turns the wheel, and with her right she guides the thread drawn from the flax, &c. round the spindle, or rather round a pole which goes on the spindle. When a sufficient quantity is wound on the pole it is taken off, thrown into the basket, and replaced by an empty one. Spinning of wool is managed by a different pro- cess. Here the wool, in those fine slivers taken from the wool-comber, (which see under that arti- cle,) is held in the hand ; a thread of it is fastened to the wheel, which the spinner turns with velocity, and runs backwards from it, thereby drawing out the thread to a considerable length. In either mode of spinning, when the spindle is filled, its thread is w^ound upon a reel, and taken off in the form of a skein or hank. The wool is delivered out to the spinner by weight, and when she returns it it is again weighed. Women must be very expert who can earn at this business one shilUng in a day. Children at an early age are taught the art, and will soon earn from sixpence to one and sixpence a week. Besides the above mode of spinning w^ool upon the wheel, a more ancient method is still practised in Norfolk with the distaff and spindle, which may be used either sitting or walking, while the spinner tends on cows, poultry, &c. The sliver of wool is braided round the distaff (or rocJc, as it is called by the Norfolk spinners,) from the slit end of which a thread is draw^n and fastened to the slender spindle, which receives a whirling motion by being quickly rolled upon a piece of smooth leather, called the trip-skin, fastened upon the thigh of the spinner, who with one hand gently draws a few hairs from the tail of the sliver, while the other winds up the The Spinner. 307 spindle and renews its whirling motion. In this way finer yarn is made than by any other method, but more than sixpence per day can seldom be earned. Spinners are employed by the master wool-comb- ers^ for an account of whose art we refer to the arti- cle. Spinning wool into skeins is the next process : these are afterwards put into the hands of other women, called winders, whose business is, by means of a wheel and other simple apparatus, to wind two, three, or more of these skeins together, so as to make a compound thread of them. This thread is wound on two spoles or bobbins, for the convenience of having them fixed on spindles, which are turned round by mill-work, in order to twist the threads thus combined into a firm substance. When taken from the mill the worsted is washed, dyed, and dried ; it is then done up in cruels and fit for sale. The variety and importance of those branches of our manufactures, which are produced from cotton, w^ool, and flax, spun into yarn, have occasioned many attempts to render spinning more easy, cheap, and expeditious, by means of complicated machinery. Several of these have been very successful ; parti- cularly for cotton, by Sir Richard Arkwright ; but the spinning-mill has not as yet been able to afford worsted yarn so cheap as that which is spun by hand. THE STATUARY. '^'his Artist carves images and ornaments irr stone, marble, &c. The art is one of those in which the ancients sur- passed the moderns. Phidias was the greatest sta- tuary among "the latter ; and Michael Angelo, al- though he flourished in the sixteenth century, has not been often excelled by the statuaries of more recent times. Daedalus has been celebrated as the inventor of statues, but it is certain that there were statuaries before his time. He was, however, the first person who fpimd the method of making them appear as if they were alive. Till his time statues were made with their feet joined together : he formed his other- wise ; he gave them the attitudes of people walk- ing and acting. The Parian marble is the most celebrated for statues : from this, which is of a most beautiful white, the greatest part of the Grecian statues were made. It is also called statuary marble, and is generally supposed to have had its name from the island of Paros, one of the Cyclades in the ^^Egean sea, where it was found : by others the name is de- rived from Agoracitus Parius, a famous statuary, who gave it celebrity by cutting a statue of Venus out of it. Among the many statues of antiquity cut out of marble, was that of Laocoon and his two sons, which is mentioned by Pliny, and has escaped the Statuary, The Statuary. 309 injuries of time : almost all white marbles now go under the name of Parian marble, and among the workmen they have the common name of alabasters, though they come from different places, as Spain, some parts of France, Italy, &c. Marble is also found in this country. Devonshire marble is now become well known ; but we believe that no fine white marble has yet been discovered in England. Statues are formed with the chisel, of several substances, as stone, marble, and plaster ; they are sometimes cast of various kinds of metal, particu- larly gold, silver, brass, and lead. When a statue is to be formed of stone, marble, &c. a drawing is first made of the subject intended to be carved ; a model is next made by laying a mass of moist clay on a board, and reducing it to shape and form by knives and spattles. Sometimes a model is made without any previous drawing, and sometimes the stone is cut from a drawing without a model. The marble or stone is carved with steel chisels of different sizes, and a wooden maul or mallet, ac- cording to the representation in the plate. The statue is not made in a single piece, but of several, which, when finished, are fastened together with a cement of the powder of calcined alabaster, called plaster of Paris ; this is mixed with water to the thickness of batter, which in a short time becomes as hard as the marble itself, and is as durable. Statues are usually distinguished into four gene- ral kinds. The first are those less than life, of j which kind are the statues of great men, of kings, and of the gods themselves. The second are those equal to the life ; with these the ancients celebrated the deeds of men eminent for learning or valour. The third are those that exceed life ; among which I some surpassed the life once and a half ; these were for monarchs and emperors, and those double the hfe for heroes. The fourth kind were still larger ; 310 Book of Trades. these were called colossuses or colossal statues. Of this last the most eminent was the colossus of Rhodes, one of the wonders of the world, a brazen statue of Apollo, so high that ships passed in full sail between its legs. It was the workmanship of Chares, who spent twelve years in making it. Sculpture has with the other fine arts made con- siderable progress in England during the last cen- tury. The annual exhibition of the productions of this noble art at the Royal Academy, Somerset House, tend to excite a proper emulation and re- ward. The great collections of antique statues at the British Museum, must also, as models, have a considerable effect in improving the student, so as to produce that excellence which genius ever de- sires to attain. The earnings of a statuary are of course as vari- ous as those of a painter. Princely and Patrician munificence has frequently enabled the artist to live like a gentleman, and mix in the first societies ; a just and honourable reward for meritorious exertion. stocking Weaver, THE STOCKING-WEAVER. The Stocking-weaver makes a part of the co- vering of the body worn in cold chmates, including the foot, the leg, and a part of the thigh, commonly called stockings : the principal use of which is to defend those parts of the body from cold. Formerly stockings were made of cloths, or of milled stuffs, sewed together : but since the inven- tion of knitting and weaving stockings of silk, wool, cotton, thread, &c. the use of cloth stockings has been entirely discontinued. In the year 1561, Queen Elizabeth was presented with a pair of black silk knit stockings, with which she was so much pleased as to discontinue the use of those made of cloth. Some years, however, previous to this, the French historians inform us, that their Henry the Second was the first person in the kingdom who wore silk stockings, so that we might conclude the custom passed from France to England about the time of the death of that monarch, in 1559. But it is said by Dr. Howel, in his History of the Worlds that Henry VIII. commonly wore cloth hose, except by accident he obtained a pair of silk stockings. His son, Edward the Sixth, was pre- sented with a pair of long Spanish silk stockings, by Sir Thomas Graham, and the donation was highly esteemed. Whether, therefore, the invention of knit silk stockings came from France or Spain, is a question which it is now impossible to decide. 312 Book of Trades. William Rider was the first person who made them in England ; and he, it is said, learned the art at the house of an Italian merchant, and knit a pair of worsted stockings, which he presentedj^ William, Earl of Pembroke, in the year 1564. Modern stockings, whether woven or knit, are formed of an indefinite number of little knots, called stitches, loops, or meshes, intermingled in one another. Woven stockings are manufactured on a machine made of finely-polished iron or steel, such as that represented in the plate. It is of a structure too complex to admit of a description in this little work. The invention of this machine is ascribed to WilUam Lee, M.A. of St. John's College, Cam- bridge, in the year 1589. But by other persons, the credit of it is given to a student of Oxford, who was driven to pursuits of industry through mere necessity. This young man falling in love with an inn-keeper'^s daughter, married her, though she had not a penny, and he, by his marriage, lost his fellowship. They soon became miserably poor, and the only means by which they could support them- selves, was the knitting of stockings, at ^lich the woman was very expert. Sitting constantly toge- ther from morning to night, the young man ob- served, with great attention, the motion of his wife's fingers in the dextrous management of her needles, and, conceiving that it was possible to contrive a little loom, which might perform the work v/ith more expedition, they soon began to make the experiment, which completely succeeded. Thus the stocking-loom w^as first invented, by which the inventor not only placed himself above want, but has rendered to his country great and import- ant benefits, stockings being a considerable article of exportation from this to foreign countries. The StocJcing'Weaver. 313 This is the account given of the invention of the stocking-loom by our own historians ; but the French say, that although the EngHsh boast of being the inventors of it, that it is in vain to attempt to de- prive France of the glory of so useful an addition to our domestic arts. Every body, they say, knows that this surprising and useful machine was invented by a Frenchman, who, finding some difficulty in obtaining an exclusive privilege to establish it at Paris, went over to England, where his machine was admired, and where he was himself munificently recompensed. The loom has, of course, received several im- provements, so that, at length, stockings of all sorts can be made on it with great art and expedition. By means of some additional machinery to the stocking-frame, the turned ribbed stockings are made as well as those done with knitting-needles. These, together with the manner of making the open-work mills, a curious sort of lace aprons and handkerchiefs, as well as a great variety of figured goods for waistcoats, &c. have sprung from the same machine, and form now a considerable additional branch of the stocking trade. Knit-stockings are made with needles of polished iron, which interweave the threads, and form the meshes, of w^hich the stockings consist. This part of the invention, as it is now practised, is given by some to Scotland, and by others to France, though it probably originated in Spain. In Paris there is no great house without its porter, and these porters em- ploy all their leisure moments in the knitting of stock- ings. In England, knitting is carried on as a trade in a singular manner. The wool-comber, in many parts of the country, appoints a day, generally once in a fortnight or three weeks, when he will meet his spinners and his knitters, to deliver out his wool and his worsted to be spun and knit. The poor women and girls of the village meet him on the day ap- p 314' Book of Trades. pointed with their work, return what they have spun or knit, and take other work instead. But the mo- ney which they obtain, either at spinning or knitting, is rarely more than six-pence or eight-pence a, day. The wool-comber afterwards dresses the stockings, by stretching them on a wooden board, the shape of the leg and foot, having previously caused them to be scowered, or dyed, as the colour or colours require, and then he packs them up, either in a dozen or half-dozen pairs, for sale, as in the case of woven stockings. Knit stockings are much more durable than those made in the loom ; but the time required for this work, especially if the material be very fine^ raises the price too high for common wearers. But such is their superior durability, that coarse knit stockings are preferred and worn by the common people in most parts of England, particularly by the men. The Scotch are said to make the best knit stock- ings of any people in Europe, and they sell at enor- mously high prices, from thirty shillings to four or five pounds per pair. A Stocking-weaver requires more genius than strength. It is a profitable business to the master ; but journeymen must have considerable application to earn more than a guinea and a half a week. It is, however, clean neat work, and unexposed to the inclemencies of the weather. They are paid so much for each pair of stockings, and the price va- ries according to the fineness of the thread, cotton, silk, or worsted, of which they are manufactured : if, however, the workmen do not possess a loom of their own, they allow the master two shillings a week for the use of his. Looms will cost from fifty to a hundred and fifty guineas each. The hosier purchases stockings, night-caps, socks, gloves, &c. from the manufacturer, and sells them again. Some of them employ looms, and are, in that respect, stocking-weavers. The business of The Stocking-weaver. 315 the hosier consists in being able properly to appre- ciate the value of the goods in which he deals, an art which is easily acquired, and which ought to be reserved for the female sex, for whom, unfortunately, there are not a sufficient number of occupations appropriated. THE STONE-MASON. The business of a Stone-Mason consists in the art of hewing and squaring stone and marble, in cutting them for the purposes of building, and in being able to fix them in the walls of buildings with mortar. This is one of the most ancient arts which exists in the world. The Pyramids of Egypt will ever remain monuments of the power, industry, and genius of man : although much has been written upon the construction of these massive piles, it is not known with certainty by whom or when they were erected, nor for what purpose they were de- signed. It is, we beheve, pretty generally agreed, that they are at least three thousand years old. If we look to Greece, and to Rome, before the Christian aera, we shall find that the art of the Stone- mason had arrived at such perfection that, at the present day, we seem to have little more to do than to become humble imitators of those grand and elegant remains of genius and of knowledge. The tools principally used by masons, are the square, the level, the plumb-line, the bevel, the com- pass, the hammer, the chisel, the mallet, the saw, and the trowel ; besides these, used by the hand, the master mason ought to possess powerful ma- chines for raising or rearing large stones, or other great burdens, as levers, pullies, the wheel and axis, crane, &c. The Stoiie-mason. 317 When the stones are large, the business of hewing and cutting them belongs to the stone-cutter, but these are frequently ranked with the masons, and so also are those who fashion the ornaments of sculpture, though they are, properly, carvers and sculptors in stone. The Mason in the front of the plate is carving a stone with a mallet and chisel; before him, and on the block of the stone which supports the piece on which he is at work, lies the bevel : the two sides of the bevel move on a joint, so that they may be set to any angle. When masons or bricklayers speak of a bevel angle, they mean one which is neither forty- five nor ninety degrees. In the back-ground of the picture there is a man sawing into thin pieces a large block of stone. The Stone-mason's saw is different from those used by other mechanics, it has no teeth, and being moved backwards and forwards by a single man, it cuts the stone by its own w^eight, and the friction occasioned by the motion. In the winter time, and in rainy or very sultry weather, the sawyer sits in a wooden box, not unlike a watchman's box, but without a front to it. These boxes are moveable, so that the workman may secure himself from the piercing blasts of winter, and the scorching sun-beam in summer. Both marble and stone are dug out of quarries : I the grain of marble is so fine as readily to take a beautiful polish. It is of course much used in orna- ments of building, as columns, statues, altars, tombs, chimney-pieces, tables, &c. There are an indefinite number of different kinds of marbles ; and they take their name either from their colour, their age, their country, their degree of hardness, or their defects. Some are of one colour only, as black or white ; others are streaked or variegated with stains, clouds, and veins ; but almost all are opake, excepting white, which, w^hen 318 Book of Trades. cut into very thin slices and polished, becomes transparent. Marble is polished by being first rubbed with free-stone, afterwards wdth pumicd-stone, and lastly with emery or calcined tin. Artificial marble is real marble pulverized, and mixed with plaster ; and from this composition are made statues, busts, basso- relievos, and other ornaments of architecture. Few natural substances are less understood than marble ; the people who are accustomed to work it know, from experience, and at first sight, that one sort will receive a high pohsh, that another is easily wrought, and a third refuses the tools. And men of science know little more. Masons make use of several kinds of stone, but Portland-stone is the principal: of this there are vast quarries in the island of Portland, in Dorset- shire, from whence it is brought in large quantities to London. It is used for building in general ; for copings at the tops of houses, and as supports for iron rails ; for window-sills ; for stone balusters ; for steps, and paving, where great neatness is required. This stone is very soft when it comes out of the quarry ; it w^orks easily, and becomes hard by length of time. The piers and arches of Westminster bridge are built with it; and so is the magnificent Cathedral of St, Paul. Purbeck-stone comes from an island of that name, also in Dorsetshire; it is chiefly used in paving, making steps, and other rough work. Yorkshire-stone is also used for paving, steps, coping, and other purposes in which strength and durability are required. There is also a stone which, w^hen cut into slabs, is used for hearths, called Rye- gate-stone. Stone-masons make use of mortar, plaster of Pa- ris, and tarrass, for cementing or joining their works. The two former are used for dry work, and the lat- ter for bridges and buildings exposed to the water. The Stone-mason. 319 Mortar is made of lime and sand, in about equal proportions, and after being sifted to a proper de- gree of fineness, is mixed with sufficient water to reduce them to a paste of the necessary consistence for use. The use of the sand is to supply the lime with the carbonic acid which it lost by being burnt ; and thus be again converted into stone. Plaster of Paris is made by exposing alabaster to a certain degree of heat, either in an oven, or in a common boiler, in order to discharge all the water which it contains ; it being, for convenience, first reduced to a powder. Tarrass is a coarse sort of plaster, or mortar, du- rable in wet : it is chiefly used to line basons, cisterns, wells, and other reservoirs of water. That which is called Dutch tarrass is made of a soft rock-stone, found near Cologne on the Rhine : it is burnt like lime, and reduced to powder by mills, and then car- ried to Holland, by which means it has acquired the name of Dutch tarrass. It is very dear, on account of the great demand there is for it in aquatic works. An artificial tarrass is formed of two parts of lime, and one of plaster of Paris ; and another consists of one part of lime, and two parts of well-sifted coal ashes. These are all used occasionally by the mason and bricklayer. Stone-masons measure and charge for their work either by the superficial or cubic foot. They have extra charges for iron cramps, which fasten two or more stones together ; for cutting holes in which iron rails are fixed, and for various other things. A journeyman mason obtains usually about 4^. or 4s, 6d, per day, and the labourer has from 2s. 6d. to 3s. per day ; but others who work by the piece, or who are employed in carving or other fine work, will earn more than double that sum. THE STRAW-HAT MAKER« The Straw-Hat Maker, as a separate trade, is become of more importance than it formerly was : it is confined chiefly to the female sex, and engages them not only in the making of hats for females, but bonnets of every variety and shape. The history of this trade is involved in the same obscurity as the generality of those trades whose commonness excites no attention from mankind ; and where although, both for ornament and use, they become a source both of profit, convenience, and pleasure, yet their trivial nature are esteemed below the dignity of the historian and the philo- sopher. The use of straw for various domestic purposes is unquestionably very ancient; and it is not difficult to suppose that after using straw and rushes for mats, that both would soon be converted to cover- ing for the body, particularly the head, in a variety of ways and shapes. We learn from undoubted authority, that the islanders of the South-seas, when first visited by Captain Cook, made use of mats of straw, or rushes, for the purposes of defence, and we think it is pretty evident that straw would offer, from its obviousness to man, a ready material, both ornamental and use- fvil, in the earliest ages of society; and, indeed, we have no doubt that such was the case : but how it became improved to the present elegance and taste. The Straw Hat Maker. The StraW'hat Maher. S2l conjecture rather than fact is left to supply us with the history. There are few manufactures in the kingdom in which so httle capital is wanted, or the knowledge of the art so soon acquired, as in that of straw-plat- ting. One guinea is quite sufficient for the purchase of the machine and materials for employing two per- sons several months. The Straw-hat maker, represented in the plate, is employed in the making up of hats or bonnets, only after the straw is braided or platted. The straw is cut at the joints ; and the outer co- vering being removed, it is sorted of equal sizes, and made up into bundles of eight or ten inches in length, and a foot in circumference. These are then to be dipped in water, and shaken a little, so as not to retain too much moisture ; and then the bundles are to be placed on their edges, in a box which is sufficiently close to prevent the evaporation of smoke. In the middle of the box is an earthen dish, containing brimstone broken in small pieces : this is set on fire, and the box covered over, and kept in the open air several hours. It will be the business of one person to split and select the straw for fifty others who are braiders. The splitting is done by a small machine made principally of wood. The straws, when spHt, are termed splints, of which each worker has a certain quantity : on one end is wrapped a linen cloth, and they are held under the arm, and drawn out as they are wanted. Platters should be taught to use their second fingers and thumbs, instead of the forefingers, which are often required to assist in turning the splints, and facilitate very much the platting ; they should also be cautioned against wetting the splints too much. Each platter should have a small linen work bag, and a piece of pasteboard to roll the plat round. After five yards have been worked up, it should 322 Book of IVades. be wound about a piece of board half-a-yard wide, fastened at the top with yarn, and kept there seve* ral days to form it in a proper shape. Four of these parcels, or a score, is the measurement by which the plat is sold. A good platter can make three score a week, and good work will always command a sale both in winter and summer. The machines are small ; they may be bought for two shillings each, and will last for many years. When the straw is platted it comes into the hand of the person represented in the plate ; who sews it together into hats, bonnets, &c. of various sizes and shapes, according to the prevailing fashions. They are then put on wooden blocks for the purpose of hot-pressing ; and, to render them of a more deli- cate white, they are again exposed to the fumes of sulphur. There is also a kind of hats and bonnets called Leghorn chip, which is of a much more durable kind than our own straw, but not of so good a colour. Persons who make up these hats will earn half-a- guinea a week : but braiders or platters, if very ex- pert, will earn more. Tht Tallow Ckandltr, THE TALLOW-CHANDLER. The business of a Tallow-Chandler consists in making candles of suet or fat, and in selling them after they are made. In the country the trade of a tallow-chandler and soap-boiler are frequently com- bined^ in London more rarely. In France, and in some other countries on the con- tinent, the person who exercises the trade of a Tal- low-chandler is called by the more appropriate name of candle-maker. A candle is composed of a cotton-wick, loosely twisted, and covered with tallow, wax, or sperma- ceti, in a cylindrical figure, which being lighted at the end, serves to illuminate the place in the ab- sence of the sun. The history of the making of candles is not less obscure than the history of some of the other trades which we have had occasion to investigate. But that the tallow-chandler is a trade of ancient date we have every reason to believe : for in France, pre- vious to the year 1450, the chandlers and grocers formed a united company, and were in that year separated into their distinct professions, the chand- lers being forbidden to sell grocery, or any other article but those belonging to their particular trade. The grocers, however, continued to sell candles till the year 1459, when they also were prohibited from meddling with the trade of the chandler. Of the origin of this trade we have no account ; but we think that it is plainly discoverable at the p 6 324 Book of Trades. present day in many remote country districts, where the farmers, for the commonest purposes, now use a dried rush, stripped of its exterior covering, and afterwards dipped in some melted fat. The rush is about twelve inches long, is lighted at one end like a candle ; but instead of being placed perpendicu- larly in a candlestick, is put obliquely in a notch, or spring, fixed so as to hold it tight. One of such rushes will, perhaps, burn ten minutes or a quarter of an hour ; and this, we doubt not, is the origin of candle-making. The cotton used for dipped or common candles^ is brought from Smyrna in the wool, which grows on trees in the shape of nuts, the shells inclosing the cotton. The cotton for moulded candles comes from Turkey and the adjacent countries. The tallow-chandler employs women to wind the cotton into large balls ; he then takes five, six, or eight of these balls, and drawing out the threads from each, cuts them into proper lengths, according to the size of the candles wanted. The machine for cutting the cotton is a smooth board, made to fixed on the knees, on the upper surface are the blade of a razor and a round piece of cane, placed at a certain distance from one another, according to the length of the cotton wanted ; the cotton is car- ried round the cane, and being brought to the razor is instantly separated from the several balls. The next operation is denominated pulling the cotton, by which the threads are laid smooth, all knots and unevenness removed, and, in short, the cotton is rendered fit for use. It is now spread, that is, placed at equal distances on rods about half an inch in diameter, and three feet long ; these are called broaches. A tallow candle to be good must be composed of sheep's and bullock's tallow. The wick ought to be pure, sufficiently dry, and properly twisted, otherwise the candle will emit an inconstant vibra- The 2'alloW'chandler. 325 fory flame, which is both prejudicial to the eyes and insufficient for the distinct illumination of objects. The Tallow-chandler's business in London is ge- nerally performed in a cellar, of which, with the stau-s down to it, we have a representation in the plate. There are two sorts of tallow candles ; the one is dipped, the other moulded : the former are called common candles. The tallow is prepared by chop- ping the fat into small pieces, and then boiling it for some time in a large copper ; when the tallow is extracted from the membranes by the boiling, the remainder is subjected to the operation of a strong iron press, and the cake that is left after the tallow is expressed from it, is called greaves ; with this dogs are fed, and the greater part of the ducks that supply the London market. When the tallow is in proper order, the workman holds three of the broaches, with the cotton properly spread between his fingers, and immerses the cotton into the vat, called a mould, containing the tallow ; they are then hung on a frame and suffered to cool ; and when cold they are dipped again, and thus the process is continued till the candles are of a proper size. During the operation the vat is supplied from time to time with fresh tallow, which is stirred fre-» quently, and kept to the proper heat by means of a gentle fire under it. Such was the laborious method universally adopt- ed in making common candles till within these fif- teen or twenty years, when an invention was intro- duced which is represented in the plate, and may be thus described. Three pulleys are let into a beam in the house ; round these proper-sized ropes run, and are fixed to a machine, on which six broaches are placed. In the scale are weights suf- ficient to draw up the broaches ; these are increased as the candles become larger and heavier. The workman, by means of this very simple and excel- 326 BooJc of Trades, lent contrivance, has only to guide the candles, and not to support the weight of them between his fingers. In the left-hand corner of the plate is the mould, in which the moulded candles are cast. The frame is of wood, and the several moulds are hollow metal cylinders, generally made of pewter, of the diameter and length of the candle wanted* At the extremity of these is the neck, which is a little cavity in form of a dome, having a moulding within side, and pierced in the middle with a hole big enough for the cotton to pass through. The cotton is intro- duced into the shaft of the mould by a piece of wire being thrust through the aperture of the hook till it comes out of the neck ; the other end of the cotton is so fastened as to keep it in a perpendicular situa- tion, and in the middle of the candle ; the moulds are then filled with warm tallow, and left to be very cold before they can be drawn out of the pipes. Besides these, there are other candles made by Tallow-chandlers, intended to burn during the night, without the necessity of snuffing ; the wick has been usually made of split rushes, but lately very small cotton wicks have been substituted for the rush ; V these are lighted much easier, are less liable to go out, and owing to the smallness of the cotton, do not require the aid of snuffers. Large quantities of tallow are every year imported from Russia in casks, such as that which stands on the right-hand corner of the plate, from which are manufactured soap and inferior candles. The price of candles in London used formerly to be regulated by the master and wardens of the Tal- low-chandler's company, who met at their hall in Dowgate-hill every month for the purpose. But now the price of every article belonging to the trade is fixed at the weekly markets. Common candles are subject to a duty of one penny per pound. Tallow-chandlers are obhged to The Tallow-chandler. 327 take out an annual licence; and are also under a variety of revenue regulations, which are frequently not a little troublesome. The rush-lights before-mentioned, as being only once dipped, are specifically exempted from the duties as candles. Journeymen generally board in their master's house, and receive from twenty to thirty pounds a year, exclusive of board. There are also day-men, who work by the day, and are paid according to the number of candles made. Besides their com- mon wages, it is the custom of the trade to allow beer-inoney. THE TANNER. The art of the Tanner consists in converting the gelatinous part of the skins of animals into the sub- stance called leather, by impregnating it with tannin, or the tanning principle, in such a way as to render it tenacious, durable, and impenetrable to water. It is difficult to say at what period the art of tan- ning was discovered. It was doubtless known to the ancients in some degree of perfection ; and it is highly probable that the skins of animals were era- ployed by man as a covering, long before the art of tanning was known : but they would require, in this state, to be constantly kept dry, as moisture would soon bring them into a state of putrefaction. The astringent matter which converts the skin into leather, abounds in so many vegetables in every country, that accident would soon lead to some method of producing the change. Independent, however, of vegetables, many earthy and metallic substances have the property of rendering skins incorruptible to a certain extent ; and some mineral waters, containing copper or iron, will occasion this change. Hence we may conclude that some means of giving durability to the skins must have been known at a very early period. Though there has been no radical alteration, or any great practical improvements in the art of tan- ning, yet for the last twenty or thirty years it has attracted the attention of many celebrated chemists The Tanner, The Tanner. 329 and philosophers in all countries, who have investi- gated the subject with great accuracy and preci- sion. Previous to this period we occasionally find some experiments and observations by men of science on the materials of tanning. A variety of patents has also been obtained in this country for improvements in the art of tanning, but we cannot speak of them as having effectuated much impor- tant advantage to the art. The last patent is one which promises, according to the specification, to shorten the time, and improve the process of tan- ning ; and if the assertions of the Patentee, W. A. Ronalds, of Hammersmith, be correct, leather, by his process can be tanned in a few weeks. An account of this patent may be seen in the Monthly Magazine for July, 1818. All tanned leather is classed, and universally known under two general denominations: namely, hides and shins. The former being commonly ap- plied to the larger animals, as bulls, oxen, cows, &c. whose skins are chiefly intended for the soles of stout shoes, and other purposes, requiring very thick and solid leather ; while the latter term is used for calves', seals'skins, &c. which being thinner and more flexible, are intended for the upper lea- ther of shoes and boots, for saddles, harness, &c. The stoutest and heaviest of the bull and ox hides are generally selected to make what are tech- nically called butts or backs, and are manufactured in the following manner : When the horns, &c. have been removed, the raw hides are laid in a heap for two or three days, and are then suspended on poles in a close room, called a smoke-house, which is heated somewhat above the middle temperature by a smouldering fire : this occasions incipient putrefaction, which loosens the epidermis, and renders the hair and other ex- traneous matter easy of separation from the true skin. This is effected by extending the hide on 3^ Book of Trades. a wooden horse or bea^n of a convex form, and scraping it with a large two-handled knife, called a fleshing-knife, which is bent to suit the convexity of the beam. The hides are then immersed in a pit, containing water slighty impregnated with sulphuric acid. This operation, which is called raising, hy distending the pores and swelling the fibres, pre-^ pares the hide for the reception of the tannin, and renders it more susceptible of its action. When the hides are sufficiently raised, they ar6? removed into a pit, in which they are laid smooth with a layer of oak bark, ground to a coarse powder, between each* The pit is then filled with the tanniing lixiviumy or ooze, prepared from oak bark and water, and the hides remain a month or six weeks without being moved. At the end of this time the tanning prin- ciple being exhausted, the ooze and spent bark are taken out of the pit, and the hides put in again in the same way with fresh bark, and covered with fresh ooze as before. Here they remain about three months, when the same process is repeated at about the same intervals, three several times or more, according to the strength of the lixivium, and the substance of the hides. When sufficiently tanned, they are taken out of the pit, hung up in a shed to dry gradually, and being compressed with a steel instrument, and beaten smooth to render them fine and dense, the operation is complete ; and having been numbered, and weighed and stamped by the excise officer, they are ready for sale, and are term- ed butts or backs. Crop hides are thus manufactured. The horns having been removed, the hides are immersed in pits, containing a mixture of lime and water, where they remain three or four days, being occasionally moved up and down that every part may be uni- formly exposed to the action of the lime-water. They are then taken out of the lime-pits, and the The Tamer. 331 hair and other extraneous matter being scraped off', on a wooden beam as before described, are washed in water to free them from the hme and filth adher- ing. They are now immersed in a weak ooze, and by degrees are removed into other pits containing solutions, gradually increasing in strength during the time that they are taken up and put down, (technically termed handlings) at least once in every day, that all the parts of the hide may be acted upon by the tanning principle equally and uni- formly. This is continued for about a month or six weeks, when they are put into other pits with stronger ooze, and a small portion of ground bark ; whence as the tanning becomes exhausted, they are removed to other pits in regular succession, with fresh ooze and fresh bark for two or three months. At the end of this period, the hides are put into larger vats called layers^ in which they are laid smooth in a lixivium of greater strength, and with a larger quantity of ground bark between each fold. Here they remain about six weeks, when they are taken up and relaid in the same manner, with fresh bark and strong ooze for two months. This pro- cess is repeated with little variation once, twice, or thrice, at the discretion of the manufacturer, till the hides are thoroughly tanned ; when they are taken out of the pits, suspended on poles to dry, and being compressed and smoothed nearly in the same manner as before described, are called crop liideSy and form the principal sole leather of England. The process of tanning calves' and seals skins, &c. is somewhat different. They are continued in the lime pits for ten or fifteen days ; they are then deprived of their hair, and washed in water, after which they are immersed in an infusion of pigeons' dung, called a grainer^ having the property of an alkali. In this they remain for a week or ten days, according to the state of the atmosphere, and other circumstances, during which time they are fre- 332 Book of Trades. quently handled and scraped on both sides upon a convex wooden beam. This scraping, or working as it is termed, with the action of the grainer, helps to discharge all the lime, oil, and saponaceous mat- ter, and renders the skins soft and pliant, and fitted to imbibe the tanning principle. They are now re- moved into pits containing a weak solution of bark, where they undergo nearly the same process of handhng, &c. as crop hides; but they are seldom placed in layers : and the time occupied in tanning them is usually from two to four months, according to their nature and substance. The skins are then dried and sold to the currier, who dresses and blacks them for the upper leathers of boots, shoes, for harness, and various other purposes. The light and thin sort of cow-hides and horse- hides, undergo nearly the same process in tanning as calves' skins, and are applied to similar uses. Tanners are obliged to take out an annual licence from the board of excise, and are besides subject to a variety of fiscal regulations and penalties, which, for the honour of a free state, and the advantages of trade, it would be well if they did not exist. The trade of a tanner cannot be carried on with- out considerable capital ; and a roomy yard, sheds, and pits, with plenty of water, are indispensable requisites. The plate represents a tan-yard, as it is usually Been in the neighbourhood of the metropolis. THE TAILOR. The Tailor makes clothes for men and boys, and riding habits for ladies. The skins, with which mankind in the earliest ages of the world were clothed, were not in them- selves very proper to dress the body, either exactly or conveniently. An art was, therefore, necessary to adjust them, and to unite many of them together. For this purpose thread was necessary, and the making of thread was for a long time unknown. We may judge of the means which the present civilized nations once used by those which many barbarous nations now employ. The dresses of the people of Greenland are sewed with thongs made from the gut of the sea-dog, or other fish, which they have the address to cut very fine, after having dried them in the air. The savages of America and of Africa employ for the same use the sinews of animals. Indeed, we ourselves used such in the earlier ages, and even now, for particular purposes of sewing, thongs are still in use. With respect to the instruments proper for sev/ing well, pointed bones, fish-bones, and thorns, were doubtless the first articles used; afterwards awls, needles, and pins, the same as those now in use. The ancient inhabitants of Peru, which we may regard in many respects as a nation of considerable intelligence, knew neither pins nor needles. They used long thorns to sew and fix their clothes. Mankind having acquired the art of preparing 334 BooJc of Trades. wool, and, after many attempts, to make cloth of it, the art of cutting it out, and forming it into gar- ments, became gradually known and perfected. The Companies of Merchant-Tailors ^ a singular name, are well known to be very ancient, not only in France, but in some of the principal cities of England ; and the tailors, as a body, have now in this country some rules and regulations in their numerous houses of call^ as they are termed, parti- cularly in London, which to the historian, who is desirous of marking the gradation of a people's character, are deserving of some attention ; but our limits forbid us from enlarging here. In a tailor's shop, where much business is carried on, there are always two divisions of workmen : first, the foreman, who takes the measure of the person for whom the clothes are to be made, cuts out the cloth, and carries home the newly finished garments to the customers. The others are mere working tailors, who sit cross-legged on the bench, like the man near the window, represented in the plate ; of these very few know hov/ to cut out, with any degree of skill, the clothes which they sew together. The tools requisite in the business of a tailor are very few and unexpensive : the sheers for the fore- man, who stands to his work ; for the others, a pair of scissors, a thimble, and needles of different sizes. In the thimble there is this peculiarity, that it is open at both ends. Besides these, there are re- quired some long slips of parchment for measures, such as those represented hanging against the wall, and an iron, called a goose ; with this when made hot they press down the seams, which would other- wise take off* from the beauty of the goods. The stand of iron is generally a horse-shoe, rendered bright from use. Before the foreman, or master, (for where the trade is not extensive the master cuts out, measures gentlemen, and carries home the The Tailor. 335 .clothes,) is an open box, this contains buckram, tapes, bindings, trimmings, buttons, &c. with which every master-tailor should be furnished, and from which they derive very large profits. On the shelf is a piece of cloth ready to be made into clothes, and also a pattern-book. The tailor in London purchases his broad-cloths of the woollen-draper, who buys his goods from the Blackwell-hall factory, or from the clothiers settled in the west, or other parts of England. At Bristol fair, which is held in September for fourteen days, and also in March for the same period, an immense quantity of broad-cloths are sold by the clothiers, who assemble there, and hire shops as well as booths for the purpose. The tailor deals also with the mercer for fancy- waistcoats and other articles of dress ; with the haberdasher for all his small wares ; but when he makes clothes for officers, he must go to the gold and silver lace-maker for the necessary ornaments. The wages of a journeyman tailor are regulated by act of parliament, and he now has four shillings and six pence a day : the trade is overstocked with hands, although men that are sober, industrious, and skilful in their business, are seldom out of em- ployment. In times of general mourning for any branch of the royal family, the wages of the men are double ; but they work more hours in the day. A writer on this subject says, that a master-tailor ought to have a quick eye to steal the cut of a sleeve, the pattern of a flap, or the shape of a good trimming, at a glance : any bungler may cut out a shape when he has a pattern before him ; but a good workman takes it by his eye in the passing of a chariot, or in the space between the door and a coach : he must be able not only to cut for the handsome and well-shaped, but bestow a good shape where nature has not granted it : he must make the clothes sit easy in spite of a stiff gait or 4 Book of Trades. awkward air : his hand and head must go together : be must be a nice cutter, and finish his work with elegance • The woollens in which the tailor principally deals is a vast branch of English manufacture. And so jealous are we of this trade, that, besides the pre- caution taken to use our own wools ourselves, we insist upon selling them ourselves, and of carrying tliem to the places where there is a demand for them. A master-tailor in London, where a great number of hands are employed, requires considerable capi- tal, as the weekly payments of wages are large ; and as he is obliged to give long credit, he cannot afford to do so without considerable profit ; which is generally laid on to countervail the risk and time, with a handsome per centage for his indulgence. THE TIN-PLATE WORKER. Tin-plate, or tin sheets, as they are usually called, is a composition of iron and tin, not melted together, but the iron in plates is dipped into a vessel of melted tin, or the iron in bars is covered over with tin, and then flatted or drawn out by means of mills. The Tin-plate worker makes a great variety of cuhnary and other domestic uten- sils of this material, too well-known to need being described. In the year 1681, tin-plates were made in Eng- land by Andrew Yarranton, who was sent into Bo- hemia to learn the art, although it was not brought to perfection for more than fifty years afterwards ; but since the middle of the last century it has been carried on in these islands in so perfect a manner, that scarcely any have been imported from the con- tinent. Our plates are of a finer gloss or coat than those made beyond sea. The latter being chiefly hammered, but ours, according to the plan of which we are now speaking, are always drawn out by the rolling mill. On the affinity which there is between tin and iron, is founded the art of forming what is com- monly called tin-plates, which is properly termed iron, or, as it is denominated in Scotland, and also on the Continent, white-iron* The process in ma- nufacturing these plates is simply this : thin plates of malleable iron, thoroughly cleared from all rust, or oxide, are dipped into a vessel of melted tin, the Q 338 Boole of Trades. surface of which fluid metal is protected from oxida- tion by the air, by a thin layer of melted tallow, the tin unites with the iron at each surface, but whether the two metals actually combine is not yet ascer- tained. The iron thus acquires a white colour, is rendered less liable to rust, and its durability is scarcely at all impaired; hence the plates can be easily bent, and from the alloy of tin at the surface can be easily worked. These plates have been sometimes called latten, and in remote districts of England the term is still in use. The Tin-plate worker receives the tinned sheets in boxes, containing a certain number. It is his business to form them into various articles, which are represented in the plate, such as kettles, sauce- pans, canisters of all sorts and sizes, milk-pails, lanthorns, &c. &c. The instruments that he makes use of are a large pair of shears, to cut the tin into a proper size and shape, a polished anvil, and hammers of various kinds. The joints of his work he makes with solder^ which is a composition of what is called hlocJc'tin and lead ; this he causes to unite with the tin by means of rosin, and the application of heat by an instrument of metal formed for the purpose. The business of a tin-plate worker is very profit- able to the master ; and the journeyman, if sober and industrious, can with ease earn from thirty-five shillings to two guineas a week. The principal manufacturers in London, are Jones and Taylor in Tottenham-court-road, and Howard in Old Street. These seldom employ less than one hun- dred or a hundred and fifty men each. Those who manufacture tin-w^are on a smaller scale, may be found in every part of the metropolis ; and one of the chief sources of profit which these smaller tradesmen enjoy, is that of lamp lighting. This business does not require great strength ; but if a person would carry it on upon a large scale, The Tin-plate Worker. 339 it requires a very considerable capital : journeymen's wages may amount to between two and three hun- dred pounds a week : for on the Wednesday night a bell is rung, which announces to each workman that the master, or his chief clerk, is ready in the counting-house to lend money to those who cannot wait till Saturday-night. These plans are, how- ever, rather overgrown exceptions, than the usual routine of the trade. The large houses have constantly travellers in different parts of the kingdom ; and as they cannot carry the articles of their trade in saddle-bags, they have drawings of all the works of taste, such as moulds for jellies, puddings, &c. Although tin is not the immediate article under our consideration, perhaps it may be amusing, as well as instructive, to the juvenile reader, to be in- formed that tin in blocks resembles silver, but is darker. It is softer, less elastic and sonorous than any other metal, except lead. It is easily extended into leaves, and melts more readily than any of the metals. A composition of eight parts of bismuth, five of lead, and three of tin, will melt in boiling water. When tin is made pretty hot, it will break with a blow. In the ore tin is mixed with arsenic. Till being less liable to rust than iron, copper, or lead, is advantageously used for the inside covering of metallic vessels. An amalgam of tin and mer- cury is used to cover the back surface of looking- glasses. The chief tin-mines in the known world are those in Cornwall. It is a fact well ascertained, that the Phoenicians visited these islands for the purpose of getting tin, some centuries before the Christian asra. In the time of King John, the Cornwall mines pro- duced but little, the right of working them being at that period wholly in the king, as Earl of Cornwall. Their value has fluctuated at different periods : about a century ago they did not yield above thirty 340 Book of Trades. or forty thousand pounds per annum ; but of late years they have produced five times that sum. The Prince of Wales, as Duke of Cornwall, receives four shillings upon every hundred weight of what is called coined white tin: this amounts to about ten thousand pounds per annum. The proprietors of the soil have one-sixth, and the rest goes to the adven- turers in the mine, who are at the whole charge of working. The tin being to be divided among the lords and adventurers, is stamped and w^orked at the mill, and is then carried, under the name of block-tin, to the melting-house, where it is melted and poured into blocks or bars, or carried to the coinage town. The coinage towns are Leskeard, Lestwithiel, Truro, Helston and Penzance, being the most con- venient parts of the country for the tinners to bring their tin to every quarter of a year. t Trunk Maker, THE TRUNK-MAKER. The persons employed in this trade make trunks chests, portmanteaus, cases for holding plates and knives, and buckets ; and sometimes the trade of a common box-maker is carried on in conjunction with the trunk-maker, by the same person. This is one of those trades arising from the sub- division of labour, in consequence of a high degree of civilization : for there can be no doubt that this trade was originally a part of the occupation of a carpenter. How long a trunk-maker has been a separate trade we have not been able to ascertain, but we find that the trunk-makers in France, as early as the year 1596, formed a separate company, and had particular laws for their government. Amongst these, it was ordered, that a master trunk- maker should have but one apprentice at a time, and he was also forbidden, by the same laws, from beginning his work before five o'clock in the morn- ing, or from continuing it after eight o'clock at night, that the neighbourhood might not be an- noyed by the noise so inseparable from this trade. Trunks, of which there are various shapes and sizes, are generally made of wood, and covered with leather, or the skins of horses or seals dressed with the hair on ; and they are generally lined with paper. To some trunks, as that upon which the man is at work, represented in the plate, there are a number of thin iron cramps put on for the sake of strength. Those which are well finished are orna- 3i2 Book of Trades. mented with several rows of brass-headed nails, such as that which stands in the left-hand corner of the plate : that at the opposite corner^ which is represented as open, is divided by several parti- tions, and lined with baize or cloth ; it is intended for holding a service of plate, which is usually sent to the banker's for safety, when the family to whom it belongs retire to their country residence. The trunks standing on the shelves, are intended either for holding linen at home, or carrying clothes on a journey. The upper one of the two on the lower shelf, is the best adapted as a travelling trunk. Travelling trunks are fastened either before or be- hind the carriage with leathern straps and buckles, or by means of chains, A patent was taken out some years since for a method of fastening trunks and portmanteaus to travelling carriages, so as to defy the art of robbers, who, in and near the metro- polis, are ever on the watch to cut off trunks from coaches, as they come in or go out of town. Portmanteaus are all of leather, and are adapted for the carriage, or may be placed behind the rider on his horse. These will contain a large quantity of linen clothes, and are very convenient for families. The buckets hanging from the ceiling are formed also of strong and stout leather, soaked and boiled. They are very useful for conveying water to ex- tinguish fires. Most large houses in the country have fifty or sixty of these, as well as a fire-engine, in case of accidents ; but it generally happens, through the inattention of servants, that if a fire breaks out, neither engine nor buckets are fit for use. Trunk-makers often use, in very neat w^ork, shagreen, which is a kind of grained leather, pre- pared from the skin of a fish, by exposing it to the weather, being first covered with bruised mustard seed, and afterwards tanned. The best shagreen comes from Constantinople, and is extremely hard ; but being soaked in water it becomes soft and plir The Trunk-maker. 343 able, and adapted to the use of the case-makers. It takes any colour, as red, green, black, &c. and is frequently counterfeited by morocco formed like shagreen ; but morocco in wearing is apt to come off' in scales, which is not the case with shagreen. Join-neymen, in this business, will earn a guinea or thirty shilHngs a week. Q 4 THE TURNER. Turning is a very ingenious business, and the operation is very well represented in the plate. The turning-lathe was well-known to the ancients, and the art of turning was carried by them to a great degree of perfection ; at least many of the ancient writers tell us so, and amongst others Pliny, who saySj that vessels of the most valuable kind were turned, and enriched wi(h figures and orna- ments, some of which are still to be found in the cabinets of the curious. The art of turning is of great importance in a variety of trades and occupations, both useful and ornamental. The architect uses it for the orna- ments both within and without highly-finished houses, and the mechanist and natural philosopher have recourse to it not only to embellish their instru- ments, but to adapt them to their different uses. There are various kinds of lathes ; that repre- sented in the plate is as useful for small work as any. Some require the aid of one or two men to turn the wheel ; but in this the vv^heel is turned by means of the treadle, by the same man who is employed in turninsj the wood. The thinsf to be turned is fixed on the lengthened axis of the smaller wheel, and upon the prop or rest, the chisel or other cutting instrument is supported ; and being brought to touch the wood while it is swiftly turning round, it takes off shavings to the greatest nicety. The piece to be turned should be rounded before Turner, Tfie Turner. it is put in the lathe ; either with a small hatchet, such as that which stands just behind the man, or with a plane, &c. shaving it down till it is every where nearly of equal thickness, leaving it a little larger than it is intended to be when finished off. The young Turner should endeavour to acquire a complete management of the gouge and chisel, which are the instruments by far the most frequently used, and the most necessary in this art ; by them, of course of different sizes, almost ail the soft woods are worked; and as to the harder materials, as box, ebony, ivory, &c. they are scarcely ever turned, ex- cept by shaving off. In that case gravers are used, with square, round, or triangular ends. These should be held horizontally while applied to the wood ; but the gouge and chisel must be used ob- liquely* When the work is completely turned, it is next to be polished. Soft woods, as the pear-tree, the hazel, and the maple, may be polished with fish-skin or Dutch rushes. Fish-skin, which is the skin of the shark, is always much better after it has been used, because, in its natural state, it is too rough to bring work to a proper degree of polish. The oldest plants of the Dutch rush are the best ; but before they are used they must be moistened with water. When the work is finished in this way, it is to be rubbed up with a httle wax or olive-oil. Ivory, horn, silver, and brass, are polished with pumice-stone, finely pounded, and put upon leather. Different methods, and different substances, are made use of for this purpose by different workmen. According to Dr. Paley, not a man in a million knows how an oval frame is turned : it may be thus made : take two ovals of metals, exactly of the size of the oval wanted, fix them firmly on the spindle of the lathe, so as to turn round with it : fix between them the wood to be turned, and then it is readily 34a Book of Trades, cut with chisels or other tools, as the lathe goes into exactly the figure of the external ovals. In fixing a lathe, great care should be taken that it be placed in a light situation, near the window, and neither so low as to oblige the workman to stoop, in order to see his work, nor so high that the chips should come in his eyes. The lathe to which we have referred, is such as is commonly employed by wood-turners, for whose use it is well adapted ; but for turning metal an iron lathe is best ; it is sometimes constructed in the same form as a wooden one, only differing in the size of the parts, which are of cast-iron ; but this form is unwieldy when applied to delicate and accu- rate work, such as is required by mechanics, clock- makers, &c. ; for their use the triangle-bar lathe is admirably adapted, as it is also for gentlemen who make this interesting art an amusement, being the most accurate and convenient of any kind of lathe. But we must refer to larger works for a minute description of this useful machine. Ivory is much used by the turner ; for a short account of which, and of the methods of dying it of different colours, we refer the reader to the arti- cle Comh-maher. A journeyman in this business may earn a guinea and a half a week ; and those who work on toys and smaller articles much more. The lathes used in the nicer sorts of tui'ning are very expensive, conse- quently the stock of a master is valuable ; and no lad should be brought up to the trade who has not something of a mechanical genius, because there is an almost endless variety in the trinkets made for sale, as may be seen in any large retail shop-window. The Type Founder. THE TYPE-FOUNDER. The business of a Type-Founder consists in melting the metals which are vised in the formation of the letters used in the art of printing, and casting the composition afterwards into suitable moulds for the various letters, figures, &c. &c. The history of the type-founder is so closely connected with the history of printing itself, that we must refer to the article Printing for many particu- lars which we shall not now repeat. We will, how- ever, observe, that it appears William Caxton was the first person in England who practised the art of printing with fusile types, and, consequently, the first who brought the metal types to perfection, which he is supposed to have done in the year 1474. The first printers usually cast their own letters ; but for some time past the type-founder has become a separate business. The first part of the type-founder s business is, to prepare the metal, which is a composition of lead and regulus of antimony, melted together in a fur- nace. In large founderies this metal is cast into bars of about twenty pounds each, which are deli- vered to the workmen as occasion may require ; this is a laborious and unwholesome part of the business, owing to the fumes which are thrown off. Fifteen hundred weight of this metal is cast in a day, and the founders usually cast as much at one casting as will last six months. Q 6 348 Book of Trades. We now come to the letter-cutter ; that is, the person who cuts the moulds in which the letters are cast ; he must be provided with vices, hammers, files, gravers, and gauges, of various kinds. He then prepares steel punches, on the face of which he draws or marks, the exact shape of the letter, and with pointed gravers and sculpters he digs out the steel between the strokes or marks which he made on the face of the punch, leaving the marks standing. Having shaped the inside strokes of the letter, he deepens the hollows w^ith the same tools ; for if a letter be not deep in proportion to its width, it will, when used at press, print black, and be good for nothing. He then w^orks the outside with files till it is fit for the matrice. A matrice is a piece of brass or copper, about an inch and a half long, and thick in proportion to the size of the letter it is to contain. In this metal is sunk the face of the letter intended to be cast, by striking the letter-punch. After this, the sides and face of the matrice must be cleared with files of all bunchings made by sinking the punch. When the metal and other things are properly prepared, the matrice is fastened to the end of the mould, which the caster holds in his left-hand, while he pours the metal with his right ; by a sudden jerk of the hand the metal runs into the cavity of the matrice, and takes the figure or impression. The mould consists of an under and upper half, of which the latter is taken off as soon as the letter is cast ; he then throws the letter on a sheet of paper, laid for the purpose on a bench or table, and he is ready to cast another letter, as before. When the casters have made a certain number of types, w^hich are made much longer than they are wanted, boys come and break away the jets, or extra lengths, from the types; the jets are cast into the pot, and the types are carried to the man who is represented sitting at his work in the plate, who The Type-Founder. 349 polishes their broad-sides. This is a very dexterous operation, for the man, in turning up the types, does it so quickly, by a mere touch of the fingers of the left-hand, as not to require the least perceptible intermission in the motion of the right upon the stone. The caster, represented in the plate, is seen in the act of pouring the metal into the mould. He takes it up with a small ladle from the pan, which is constantly kept over the fire in a sort of stove under the brick-work. The iron plate on the right-hand of the caster is to defend him from the heat of the fire, and the screen between the two workmen is to prevent the man sitting from being injured by the metal, which is apt to fiy about by the operation of casting. On the table near the nev/ly-cast types are several blocks of the metal, with which the caster replenishes his pan as he casts the letters. A type-founder will cast upwards of three thou- sand letters a day; the perfection of letters thus cast consists in their being all straight and square, of the same height, and evenly lined, without sloping one way or the other. What is called a fount or font, of letters, is a quantity of each kind, cast by the letter-founder, and properly sorted. A complete fount includes, besides the running letters, all the single letters^ double letters, points, lines, characters for reference, and figures. Letter-founders have a kind of list, by which they regulate their founts ; this is absolutely necessary^ as some letters are much more frequently used than others, of course the cells containing these should be better stored than those of the letters which do not so often occur. Thus a fount does not contain an equal number of a and 6, or of c and In a fount containing a hundred thousand characters, the a should have five thousand, the c three thou- 350 Book of Trades. sand, the e eleven thousand, the i six thousand, and the other letters in proportion. Printers order their founts either by the hundred weight or by the sheet. If they order a fount of five hundred, they mean that the whole shall weigh about five hundred pounds. But if they require a fount of ten sheets, it is understood that with this fount they shall be able to compose ten sheets, or twenty forms, without being obliged to distribute. The founder reckons one hundred and twenty pounds to a sheet ; but this varies with the nature of the letter. We must not quit the type-founder without call- ing the reader's attention to the recent introduction of what is called stereotype. We mentioned the nature of it under the article printing ; our confined limits prevent us from describing minutely the me- thod of casting the plates, but a general outline is indispensable. The page of any work is set up in the usual mode of printing, from which a mould of plaster of Paris is taken off, and from this mould a plate of type- metal is cast, from which the stereotype print is worked. Of course the plates are cast in distinct pages, which are to be put together in the usual way when a sheet is to be printed. The metal with which stereotypes are made, is a compound of regulus of antimony and hard lead, or tea-chest lead. The general method of mixing the metal is to take one hundred weight of regulus of antimony, and break it into small pieces, separating it from all dust and dirt, and then add to it from five to eight hundred weight of hard lead, according as the metal is re- quired more or less hard. The lead is to be melted over a slow fire, and when melted, the scum is to be taken off, and the regulus is put in. To every hun- dred weight of lead may be added a pound or two of block-tin ; but this is supposed by many persons not necessary. The Type-Founder. 351 In England, a person of the name of Ged appears to have been the inventor of this process, about the middle of the last century ; vi^hich has been since much improved by Mr. Andrew Wilson. Didot, at Paris, the celebrated printer, is also eminent in ste- reotype. THE WATCH-MAKER. Watch-making is an employment so well known as to require no description^ but it is usually com- bined, particularly in the country, with that of clock- making. The ancients were contented with reckoning their time from the rising of the sun of one day to the rising of the sun on the next^ as the Babylonians ; or as the Romans, from the setting of the sun of one day to the setting of the sun of the next. This last method of dividing time is still in use at Rome, and many other cities of Italy. But it is productive of great inconvenience. All the knowledge which the ancients appear to have had of measuring time, was confined to the sun-dial, to the clepsydra or water-clocks, and to hour-glasses. Till the twelfth century, the know- ledge of reckoning time by means of wheels with teeth, regularly divided, was, most probably, un- known. It is not known to whom we are indebted for the invention of the ingenious and useful art of making clocks of metal, for measuring time, and striking the hours. The first clock we hear of in England was placed in the old clock-tower which formerly stood opposite to the gate of Westminster Hall, and is said to have been purchased with part of a fine of eight hundred marks, or 520/. imposed upon Randolph de Hengham, chief-justice of the King's Bench, in 1288. Soon after this, another clock, Watch Maker, The Watch-maker, S53 which cost no more than SO/, was set up in the Cathedral of Canterbury, V2d2. These most an^ cient clocks were probably imported from abroad^ or at least made by foreign artists. About seventy years after this : King Edward the Third invited three clock-makers from Delft to come to England, and granted them a protection to exercise their trade in any part of the kingdom. By these means, before the end of the fourteenth century, clocks became common in our cathedrals and conventual churches. Chaucer, one of the best of our old poets, who lived at this time, compares the crowing of a cock to a church-organ for sweet- ness, and to a church- clock for exactness, as to time. Of the astronomical clocJcs, one of the first was made by an abbot of St. Albans, in the reign of Richard the Second. It represented the revolu- tions of the sun and moon, the fixed stars, and the ebbing and flowing of the sea. When he had finished it, so deficient were we at that time in the knowledge of mechanics, that he was obliged to compose a book of directions, for managing and keeping it in order, lest it should be ruined by the ignorance of the monks. Watches were also made, or at least used, in England, not long after the beginning of the four- teenth century. One, which belonged to Robert Bruce, who was king of Scotland, from 1306 to 1309, is now in the possession of his Majesty ; and that which belonged to Oliver Cromwell, is still preserved in the British Museum. The King of Scotland's is not of a larger size than those which are used at this day ; Oliver Cromwell's, instead of a chain, winds up with cat-gut. Pendulum watches were invented by Dr. Hooke, about the year 1688. About a hundred years ago, Thomas Tompion was celebrated as the best watch-maker in Europe. 354 Booh of Trades* He was originally a farrier, and began the exempli- fication of his great knov>^ledge in the equation of time, by regulating the wheels of a jack for roasting meat. He was watch-maker to Queen Mary the Second, and died Nov. 20th, 1713. Although this business has not been known in England more than a century and a half, yet the best watches in the world are now made in London, and an immense exportation trade in this article is carried on here. When watches were first made the whole busi- ness was performed by one man, who was then pro* perly called a watch-maker; but the name is now given to him who puts the various movements together, adjusts their several parts, and finishes the whole machine. It is not above a century ago when watches went upon cat-gut, instead of a chain ; but cat-gut was materially affected by every change in the atmos- phere, and of course the watch could not measure accurate time for two days together : but since the invention of the chain, and the great improvement in the temper of the springs, our watches are but little affected by the weather in this climate. Watches and clocks being adapted to the same purpose, are made, or rather finished by the same artisan. The former have such movements as shew the parts of time ; the latter have such as publish it by striking on a bell. But the name of watches is usually appropriated to such as are carried in the pocket ; and that of clocks to the larger movements, whether they strike the hour or not. Watches which strike the hour are called repeaters. Watches and clocks are composed of wheels and pinions ; in the former there is a balance or regu- lator, to direct the quickness and slowness of the wheels, and a spring, which communicates motion to the whole machine : but in clocks, instead of the regulator and spring, there are a pendulum and two The Watch-maker. 355 weights. The spring of a watch is inclosed in a barrel, on the outside of which is wound a chain: one end of this chain is fixed to the barrel itself, and the other to the fusee, which is a piece of metal in the form of a cone. When the watch is wound up, the chain which was upon the barrel, winds upon the fusee, and by this means the spring in the barrel is sti^etched : for the interior end of the spring is fixed to an im- moveable axis, about which the barrel revolves. The spring being made of exceedingly elastic steel, endeavours to recover its former position, which forces the barrel to turn round ; this motion obliges the chain, which is upon the fusee, to unfold and turn the fusee. The motion of the fusee is com- municated to a wheel, which, by means of its teeth^ connected with the pinion, turns another wheel, and so of the rest. The parts of a watch are made by several me- chanics. The movement-maker forges the wheels in solid metal to the exact dimensions ; from him they go to the person who cuts the teeth. This part of the operation was formerly done by hand ; and per- haps one of the greatest improvements which watches and clocks ever received, was the invention of engines for cutting the teeth. This has reduced the expense of workmanship and time to a mere trifle in comparison to what it was before, and has besides brought the work to a degree of exactness which no hand can imitate. The wheels come back from the cutter to the movement-maker, who finishes them, and turns the corners of the teeth. The steel pinions are drawn at a mill, so that the watch-maker has only to file down the pivots, and fix them to the proper wheels. The watch-springs form a trade of themselves : they are prepared by forming a very thin plate of steel into a double ring, binding it round with wire. S56 Book of Trades. and putting it in a proper furnace, to give it a suit- able degree of hefit. It is then dropped into oil or melted fat, which gives it a hardness equal to glass ; it then undergoes several other operations, to bring it to that fine colour and polish which it possesses. The chains are made principally by w^omen, who cut them at a certain, and a small price per dozen. It requires no great ingenuity to learn the art of making watch-chains ; the instruments made use of render the work easy, which at first sight appears difficult. There are workmen also, who make nothing else than the caps and studs for watches ; others who make the cases ; and others who cut and enamel the dial plates. A particular set of tradesmen are called watch tool-makers, because their whole busi- ness consists in forming implements used by watch and clock-makers. When the watch-maker has obtained all the movements of the watch, and the other different parts of which it consists, he gives them to a finisher, who puts the whole together, and adjusts it to a proper time. All the branches of this profession require a con- siderable share of ingenuity, and a light hand to touch those delicate instruments which are requisite in their trade. The watch-finisher not only wants a strong sight, but is obliged to make use of magni- fying glasses, the frames of which are adapted to the shape of the socket of the eye. Few trades, if any, require a quicker eye or a steadier hand. The trade in watches is very considerable ; of course it employs a great number of hands, and the profits of master and men are considerable. A man, to be a scientific w^atch-maker, should under- stand the principles of mechanics, and something of the mathematics ; a lad, therefore, intended for this business, should have a good education, particularly in these two last sciences. The Watch-malcer. 357 Cloclt-mahing differs from watch-making princi- pally in the size of the works ; so that a person who is conversant in the latter, is equally fitted for the former. Clocks with balances continued in use till about 1650, when a new improvement in the art com- menced in the application of the pendulum as a re- gulator. Bersard, a professor of astronomy at Oxford, of the last century, asserted that the Arabians used pendulums in Astronomy, long before the above period, as we know that Tycho, Lungrenus, Galileo, and several others did, though not in conjunction with wheel-work. According to Venturi, Sancto- rius applied a pendulum to clock-work, some time before the year 1625; and Becker mentions a native of Switzerland, called Juste Birge, who did the same in 1597 ; but these experiments, if really made, were never sufSciently made public to benefit the world. There are two very curious and celebrated clocks at Strasburg and Lyons. In the former a cock claps his wings, and proclaims the hour, and an angel opens the door and salutes the virgin. In the latter, two horsemen encounter, and beat the hour on each other; a door opens, and there appear in the theatre, the Virgin with Jesus Christ in her arms, the magi presenting their gifts, and two trum- peters to proclaim the procession. There are many tradesmen in London, chiefly Germans, who make a good living by the manufac- ture of wooden clocks. In these every wheel as well as the sides, are made of wood, and, excepting some wire, and the striking-bell, there is nothing but wood that goes into the construction of those machines, which are sold as low as five shillings each; a very good one may be had for ten or twelve shillings. To these are often attached alarums; 358 Book of Trades. they then become useful for servants, to awaken them in the morning. Some years ago the minister imposed an impohtic tax upon watches, and although it has been long since repealed, we are assured that the injury then done to the trade by the measure is still felt. THE WEAVER. Weaving is the art of making threads into cloth. This art is of very ancient origin. The fabulous story of Penelope's web, and still more the frequent allusions to this art in the Sacred Writings, tend to shewj that the constructing of cloths from threads, hair, &c. is a very ancient invention. It has, how- ever, like other useful arts, undergone an infinite variety of improvements, both as to the materials of which cloth is made, the apparatus necessary in its construction, and the particular modes of operation by the artist. The arts of spinning, throwing, and weaving silk, were brought into England about the middle of the fifteenth century, and were practised by a company of women in London, called Silk-women. About 1480, men began to engage in the silk-manufacture, and the art of silk-weaving in England soon arrived at very great perfection. It has been generally supposed, however, that silk-weaving, and particu- larly that of figure- weaving, has never been brought to that perfection in England to which it has attained in other countries. The art of cotton-weaving, in its present improved state, has not been long known, either in this or any other country. Wherever it originated, it is cer- tain that most of our manufactures in this respect are unequalled in any part of the known world. The art of weaving wool is of course anterior to both the forementioned, and was, in all probability, 360 Book of Trades. the art which was first learned relative to clothing the human body, and doubtless superseded the use of skins. In the plate v/e have a good representation of a weaver engaged in his business. He sits at his work, and makes use of his feet as well as his hands. Weaving is a very extensive trade, and is divided into a number of different branches, such as the broad and narrow weavers. The broad-weaver is employed in stuffs, broad-cloths, woollen goods, &c. ; the narrow-weaver in ribbons, tapes, and such other things : and there ar^ engine-looms for mak- ing some of those narrow goods, by which ten or twelve pieces can be made at once ; but goods made in this way are generally not so good as those made by hand, l3ecause it is not possible to find thread in every part equal; but the engines give an equal pressure upon all threads, while the workman, weaving by the hand, increases or diminishes the strength of his pull according to the quality of the thread, and by that method conceals all difference in the warp. Linen and woollen cloth are both woven the same way ; the one from thread, and the other from worsted. So also is silk, which, when taken from the silk-worm and wound, is called floss silk, and afterwards spun into sewing silk. The loom is a machine by which several distinct threads of any kind are woven into one piece. They are of various structures, according to the several kinds of materials to be woven, and to the methods of weaving them. The other principal things to be noticed are, the warp, the ivoof, and the shuttle. The warj) is the threads, whether of silk, wool, linen, or cotton, that are extended lengthwise on the loom. The woof is the thread which the weaver shoots across the warp, by means of a little instrument, called a shuttle. The Weaver. 361 The shuttle serves to form the woof, by being thrown alternately from right to left, and from left to right, across and between the threads of the warp. In the middle of the shuttle is a cavity, called the eye, or chamber, and in this is enclosed the spole, or bobbin, on which the thread, or part of it, is wound. The ribbon-weaver's shuttle is different from that of most other weavers, although it serves for the same purpose. It is made of box, and is six or seven inches long, shod with iron at both ends, which terminate in points that are crooked, one to- wards the right, the other towards the left. In the front of the plate stands the reel, by means of which the thread is wound on the bobbins that lie in the wooden bowl ready for the weaver as he wants them. The thread for the warp is wound on a kind of large wooden bobbins, to dispose it for warping. When the warp is mounted, the weaver treads al- ternately on the treadle, first on the right step, and then on the left, which raises and lowers the threads of the warp equally ; between these he throws trans- versely the shuttle from one to the other ; and every time that the shuttle is thus thrown, a thread of the woof is inserted in the warp. In this manner the work is continued till the piece is finished, that is, till the whole warp is filled with the woof ; it is then taken off the loom, by unrolling it from the beam, on which it had been rolled in proportion as it was woven. To give woollen stuff the necessary qualities, it is required that the thread of the warp be of the same kind of wool, and of the same fineness through- out. The woof is of different matter according to the piece to be made. In taffety, both woof and warp are of silk. In mohairs, the woof is usually flax, R 862 BooJc of Trades. and the warp silk. In satins the warp is frequently wool, and the woof silk. The common weaver requires but little ingenuity in carrying on his business ; but weavers of flowered silks, damasks, velvets, &c. ought to be persons possessed of a considerable capacity : it is an advan- tage to them if they are able to draw and design their own patterns. The silk-throwster prepares, by means of a mill, the raw-silk for the use of the weaver ; he employs women chiefly. Spinning the hard silk and wind- ing it, emplo}^ a great number of hands of almost all ages. Journeymen weavers can, while in constant em- ploy, make a good living. They will earn a guinea and a half or two guineas a week, according to the substance on which they are employed. It is a business that requires no great degree of strength, and a lad may be bovmd apprentice to it at twelve or thirteen years of age. Among weavers are found men of a thoughtful and hterary turn. One of the first mathematicians of this country was Mr. Thomas Simpson, an industrious weaver in Spitalfields. THE WHEELWRIGHT. This artisan's employment embraces the making of all sorts of wheels for carriages which are em- ployed in husbandry, as well as for those adapted to the purposes of pleasure. Road-waggons and other vehicles constructed for burden, are also the manu- facture of the wheelwright. In London this business is divided^ into two dis- tinct branches of work ; one of which being confined to the purpose of manufacturing wheels for carriages of pleasure, is an appendage to coach-making ; the other to the making of the bodies, wheels, &c. of the different kinds of machines required for the trans- port of the various commodities for the purposes of trade, and the comfort and convenience of the people. It will appear, by a very superficial examination, that such a business is of very great consideration, and must be undoubtedly of very great antiquity ; as from the earliest dawn of civilization the trans- port of heavy bodies from one place to another, such as stones and timber, for the purpose of build- ing, would suggest to man the use of rolling bodies for such conveyance, and as an improvement upon these, wheels for such purposes. This trade contributes largely to the transfer and supply of many of our first necessities, by af- fording the means of ready transit for articles of all descriptions, as well as in offering a similar conve- nience of quick communication for ourselves. It is R 2 364 BooJc of Trades. pleasing to reflect, that amidst all the various im- provements in arts and manufactures, this of car- riage-wheels has been by no means neglected ; our artizans in this line stand pre-eminent; our car- riages are manufactured on better principles, as well as more neat in the execution, than are to be found in any other country. The tools necessary in this business are many of the same as those employed by the carpenter, and, indeed, the carpenter and the wheelwright, in many xiountry places, are one and the same person. The wheel is composed of several parts : as the 7iavey which is the centre-piece ; the spokes, which are inserted at one end of the nave, and at the other into the fellies^ which make up the outside rim or circumference of the wheel. These three parts constitute a wheel ; but for the sake of giving strength to the whole, some iron-work is used ; this we shall describe in its proper place. The nave is that short thick piece of wood in the centre of each wheel, which receives the axle-tree, of which one is represented standing on its end in the left-hand corner of the plate, with holes ready to receive the spokes, which are made to fit accu- rately. When the spokes are fitted in the nave, the rim, or fellies, are next put on the spokes. Each felly is of sufficient length to receive two spokes, so that if there be twelve spokes in a wheel, the rim should consist of six pieces, or fellies. The nave is bound at each end on the outside with strong iron hoops, called nave-hands : within- side also there is a ring of iron, called the wisher^ or washer, to prevent the hole from wearing by the friction of the axle. To the outside rim, or fellies, is an iron tire, fastened with very strong nails, or spikes. The parts of the tire are made red-hot be- fore they are put on the wheels, in order that they may burn a small depth in the wheel, or, at least, all that roughness which might hinder it from lying The Wheelwright. 365 flat with the wood ; besides, by being in this state, they may be easily bent, so as to conform most ac- curately to the curve of the wheel. Another ad- vantage is, that iron, when hot, expands, and as it becomes cold it contracts into shorter length ; and as the tire of the wheel contracts, it must have a tendency to draw the several parts of the fellies closer together. To give the man power over his work, the wheel is placed in a sort of pit, made in the floor, on the sides of which the nave may rest, so little more than half of the wheel stands above the surface. The wheelwright, in the plate, is re- presented putting on the tire of the wheel ; and the smoke is made to pour forth from the burning of the wood. The large pincers at his feet enable him to bring the red-hot iron from the fire and place it on the wheel. The axe, resting against the other wheel, has a bended blade, and is used for hollow* ing out the fellies. By thus scooping out the wood, the grain is often so much cut and injured as to weaken it in a great degree. To remedy this, a method has been in- vented of bending timber into a circular form, so that the whole rim of the wheel consists of not more than two pieces, which are covered with a tire in a single piece. By this mode of construction the cir- cumference of the wheel is every where equally strong, and much more durable than wheels made in the usual form, although not more than half the quantity of wood is employed. Elm, which is sometimes employed by wheel- wrights for axle-trees, is also much in use for chop- ping-blocks, not being liable to split. But Ash is much more commonly used for axle-trees than Elm. The part of the axle-tree which is inserted into the wheel is either covered with two plates of iron, called a fore and hind clout, to prevent the wearing of the wood ; or a more common practice now, is to have what is called an iron-arm^ fitted to the iron^ R 3 366 Book of Trades. boXf which is fixed tight in the nave of the wheel. The arms are screwed to the axle by stout screws. The wheel is secured by a pin, called a linch pin. Wheelwrights in the country are makers also of carts, and a variety of other carriages : the wood which they principally use is Elm, Ash, and Oak. This business is a very laborious one, and re- quires that no lad should be brought up to it who does not possess a strong constitution : a journey- man will earn from a guinea to thirty shillings a week. • THE WIRE-DRAWER. The Wire-drawer reduces rods of different me- tals into smaller sizes, in order to render them pro- per for use in various trades, and for manufactures, and also many other purposes. When the wire-drawer became a distinct trade it is difficult to determine, but there is no doubt that the manufacture and use of wire is of some anti- quity. Nor is it easy to say when attempts were originally made to draw into threads metal, cut or beaten into small sUps, by forcing them through holes in a steel plate. It appears that as long as the work was performed by the hammer, the artists at Nuremberg were called wixe-smiths ; but that after the invention of drawing-iron, they were deno* minated wire-drawers, or wire-fnillers. Both these appellations occur in history, so early as the year 1351 ; therefore the invention must have been known in the fourteenth century. In France, a company of gold wire-drawers existed previously to the year 1583; and there were statutes in existence, a long time before this period ; one of which forbids the separa- tion of the gold wire-drawer from the gold-beater. At first threads exceedingly massy were employed for w^eaving and embroidery : it is not known when the flatted metal wire began to be spun round linen or silk thread. The spinning mill, by which the labour is now performed, is a contrivance of great ingenuity. Metal wires are frequently drawn so fine as to be wrought with other threads of silk, wool, or hemp ; and thus they become a considerable article in the manufactures. The metals most commonly drawn into wire are gold, silver, brass, copper, and iron. Silver wire and gold wire, so called, are the same, except that the latter is silver covered with gold. Ji 4 368 Booh of Trades. There are also counterfeit gold and silver wires made of copper gilt, and silvered over. The business of a wire-drawer is thus performed : If it be gold wire that is wanted, an ingot of silver is double gilt, and then by the assistance of a mill it is drawn into wire. The mill consists of a steel plate, perforated with holes of different dimensions and a wheel which turns the spindles. The ingot, which at first is but small, is pressed through the largest hole, and then through one a degree smaller, and so con- tinued, till it is drawn to the required fineness ; and it is all equally gilt, if drawn out as fine as a hair. The next operation is that of the flatting-mill, vrhich consists of two perfectly round, and exqui- sitely-polished rollers, formed internally of iron, and welded over with a plate of refined steel ; these rollers are placed with their axes parallel, and their circumferences nearly in contact; they are both turned with one handle ; the lowermost is about ten inches in diameter, the upper about two, and they are something more than an inch in thickness. The wire unwinding from a bobbin, and passing between the leaves of a book, gently pressed, and through a narrow slit in an upright piece of wood, called a ketch, is directed by a small conical hole in apiece of iron, called a guide, to any particular pare * of the width of the rollers, some of which are capa- ble of receiving by this contrivance forty threads. When the wire is flatted between the rollers, it is wound again on bobbin, which is turned by a wheel, fixed on the axis of one of the rollers, and so pro- portioned, that the motion of the bobbins just keeps pace with that of the rollers. Brass and copper wire is drawn in a similar man- ner to that already described. Of the brass wire, there are many different sizes, suited to different kinds of work. The finest is used for strings of musical instruments. Pin-makers also use great quantities of wires of several sizes to make pins. Iron wire is made from bars of iron, which are first The Wire-drawer. 369 drawn out to a greater length, to about the thickness of half an inch in diameter, at a furnace, with a ham- mer gently moved by water. These thinner pieces are bored round, and put into a furnace to anneal. A very strong fire is necessary for the operation. They are then delivered to the workmen, called rip- pers, who draw them into wire, through two or three holes, and then anneal them a second time : after which they are to be drawn into wire of the thickness of a pack-thread : after this, they are again to be annealed, and then delivered to the small wire-drawers. The plate in which the holes are is iron on the outside, and steel on the inside surface, and the wire is anoint- ed with oil to make it run easier. The first iron that runs from the stone when melting, being the softest and toughest, is usually preserved to make wire of. The wire first spun about thread was round ; and the invention of first making the wire flat is probably a new epoch in the history of the art ; and it is a curious fact, that three times as much silk can be covered by flatted, as by round wire; so that various ornamental articles are cheap in the same propor- tion. Besides, the brightness of the metal is heightened in an uncommon degree, and the article becomes much more beautiful. The greatest improvement ever made in this art was undoubtedly the invention of the large drawing machine, which is drawn by water or by steam, and in which the axle-tree, by means of a lever, moves a pair of pincers, that open as they fall against the drawing-plate ; lay hold of the wire, which is guided through a hole in the plate ; shut as they are drawn back ; and in that manner pull the wire along with them. Wire-drawing, in all its branches, is profitable to the master and to the workman ; it is a good busi- ness, being a trade that is not exposed to the wea- ther; that can be carried on at all seasons of the year ; and by which the workman may earn from one guinea to double that sum in a week. R 3 THE WOOL-COMBER. > The Wool«Comber cleanses and prepares wool in a proper state to be spun into worsted, yarn, &c. for weaving and other purposes. This is a very ancient trade in this country, wool haying been long reckoned one of its staple commo- dities. The raw material, as is well known, is the hair or covering of the sheep, which when washed, combed, spun, and woven, makes worsted, mapy kinds of stuff, and other articles, adapted to the l^se, comfort, and even the luxuries, of life. The invention of wool-combing is ascribed to Bishop Blaize, the patron saint of the trade, and also of the clothiers, in honour of whom a splendid festival is annually kept by the whole body of wool- combers in this kingdom, on the third of February. But, we think, there is more of fable than reality in this honour to the bishop. While the wool remains in the state in which it is shorn from the sheep^s back, it is called a fleece. Each fleece consists of w^ool of different qualities and degrees of fineness, which the wool-stapler, or the wholesale dealer in wool, sorts, and sells in packs, at different rates, to the wool-comber. The wool which is obtained from the skins of sheep which are killed, and not shorn, is of a differ- ent quality, in regard to length, from the shorn wool, and is used by the wool-combers principally for making stockings, for which, from being longer, Description of Machines. 371 it is much better calculated ; and hence one reason why knit-stockings are stronger than wove ones. The attitude of the Wool-comber, in the plate, exhibits him in only one part of his business, the drawing out of the slivers. The wool intended for the manufacture of stuffs is brought into a state adapted for the making of worsted by the Wool- comber. He first washes the wool in a trough, and, when very clean, puts one ^nd on a fixed hook and the other on a moveable hook, which he turns round with a handle, till all the moisture is drained com- pletely out. It is then thrown lightly out into a basket, such as is seen in the plate. The Wool- comber next throws it out very lightly into thin lay- ers, on each of which he scatters a few drops of oil ; it is then put together closely into a bin, which is placed under the bench on which he sits : at the back of the wool-bin is another and larger one, for what is called the noyles, that is, the part of the wool that is left on the comb after the sliver is drawn out. The shape of the comb is seen in the plate : there are in each comb three rows of teeth, parallel to one another. The best combs are manufactured at Halifax, in Yorkshire ; the teeth are made of highly- tempered steel, and fixed into a very smooth stock, in which is inserted a handle, in nearly a perpendi- cular position. Each workman has two of these combs: these he makes pretty hot, by putting them into a jar, made of clay, (see the plate ^) called a comb-pot, in which there is a fire, made of the best burnt charcoal. When the combs are hot, he puts on each a cer- tain quantity of wool, having first disentangled it from all knots and other obstacles that might im- pede the operation. He then combs the wool from off one comb on to the other, alternately, till it is exceedingly smooth ; when, having again heated the combs, he fixes each on an iron spike, placed in the E 6 ■ ( 373 Book of Trades. wall for the purpose, as it is represented in the plate, and draws out the wool into a fine sliver, often- times five or six feet in length ; what is left on the comb is called a noyle, and is fit only for the manu- facture of blankets and coarse cloth. The business of the Wool-comber varies in differ- ent counties : some, as the Wool-combers in Hert- fordshire, prepare it only for worsted yarn, &c. ; others, as those in and near Norwich, prepare it for _ weaving into camblets and other light stuffs. ^ Sometimes the worsted is required to be very white : in that case, before it is dry, after washings it is hung up in a close room, in which a charcoal fire is burning ; on the fire some finely-powdered roll-brimstone is thrown, and the room made air- tight, so as neither to admit the external air, nor suffer the vapour from the sulphur to escape. In general, four Wool-combers work at the same pot, which is made large enough to admit of eight combs. There are, of course, four distinct benches and bins, of both kinds, in each shop. In almost every work-shop is an hour-glass, by which they measure the time ; the care of this falls to the lot of a particular person. The small bottle underneath the comb is filled with oil, which is occasionally used. On the side of the wall are placed two ballads, of which, in general, there are several in the Wool- comber's shop. The journeymen work by the piece, and will earn from sixteen to twenty shillings per week. Like people in many other trades, they often make holi- days in the early part of the week. They come on a Monday morning, and having lighted the fire in the comb-pot, will frequently go away, and, perhaps^ return no more till Wednesday, or even Thursday. The men in this trade have a curious custom, the same with the hatters when out of work : they set out in search of a master, with a sort of certificate from their last place ; this they call going on the The Wool-comber. 373 tra7np ; and at every shop where they call, and can get no employment, they receive one penny, which is given from a common stock, raised by the men of that shop. A spare bench is always provided in the shop, upon which people on the tramp may rest themselves. Wool-combing is preparatory to the manufacture of worsted yarn, and is the first process towards the making of flannel, serges, stuffs, baize, ker- seys, &c. A pack of wool, which weighs two hundred and forty pounds, being made into stuffs, serges, &c. will employ two hundred persons. And when made into stockings, it will afford work for a week to one hundred and eighty-four persons, viz. ten combers, one hundred and two spinners, winders, &c. and sixty stocking-weavers, besides doublers, throwersj, and a dyer. APPENDIX, CONTAINING REPRESENTATIONS AND DESCRIPTIONS OF THE PRINCIPAL MACHINERY USED IN THE MANUFACTORIES OF GREAT BRITAIN. IRON FOUNDRY. This engraving represents the interior of one of the principal iron foundries in Colebrook Dale, Shropshire. The air-hole is visible at the end, and a man is employed drawing the dross from the Hquid metal, which is represented to the right running from an orifice into a basin, where a man is lading it to pour into the moulds or matrices ; two other men are also visible, similarly employed; and a fourth is emptying the metal into moulds. To keep the moulds steady weights are com- monly placed on them ; but in the present case a cask of metal is suspended by a crane and let fall on the moulds, and by means of the crane shifted from mould to mould as occasion requires ; such weights not only give precision to the casting, but prevent explosion from the expansion of the air and moisture within the moulds. The tarpauling in front is intended to be let down in case of wet 0 ^ -Hi Bramafi^s Crane. r A Water Mill. Description of MacJmies. 375 weather, as rain to windward would spoil the moulds, and explode in contact with the liquid metal. The chimney of the furnace is represented to the left, and the intensity of the fire is maintained by means of double-blast bellows, the noise of which exceeds the conception of those who never heard them. BRAHMAH'S CRANE. A, supporting wall B, the arm or jib C, C, attaching bolts H, leading rollers I, cylinder and fly K, winch M, chain of suspension P, weight In this crane, which is the contrivance of the celebrated machinist and engineer, Mr. Bramah, the advantages are facility of management, a great accession of power, freedom from danger to the operators, and considering the complication of the mechanical arrangement, great rapidity of work. A WATER-MILL. A, the water-wheel B, the supporting framing C, cog wheel D, lantern pinions E, E, bevel gear driving by the strap Z, Z, the bolting ma- chinery F, a pinion on a cylinder, with which is connected the sack tackles W G, connecting the lantern pinion D, with the bolters H, bolter binns mill stones L, trough conveying fiour to S M, M, hoppers N, the building O, ground floor P, P, roof of the mill Q, V, throwing sack tackle int© and out of gear R, windows S, flour hopper T, steam U, supporting beams V, regulator X, X, water-gates The figure represents a vertical section of a mill, 376 Book of Trades. in which the driving power is an under-shot water- ^ wheel A, which, by the cog-wheel C, and the lan- tern pinion D, drives the mill stones K, to which the corn or material to be ground is delivered by the hopper K, to which again it is brought from the different floors or apartments respectively by the hoppers M, M. The flour, as it is delivered from the stones K, is collected in the leading trough L, and conveyed at S, to the bolting apparatus at H, where it receives the final operation. THE CIRCULAR SAW. A, B, saws C, B, leading rollers for E, F, driving band H, substances cut by the opera^ tion I, a receiving trough Circular saws are those which revolve on an axis, and thus act on the substance to be cut ; the saw remaining without locomotion, while the sub- stance on which it operates is moved to it by me- chanical arrangements suited to the intent and scale of the operation, and the nature of the ma- terial. The references explain the several parts of this arrangement. The pieces to be cut into the re- quired form, are introduced by the operator into a channel, in which they are brought under the action of the saws A and B iri succession ; the saws re- ceive a rapid motion by a driving band, from a large turning wheel, which cannot be shewn in our drav/ing. A Circular Sam^ Descripti07i of Machines. 377 THE OXY-HYDROGEN BLOW-PIPE. The oxy-hydrogen blow-pipe is one of the most powerful instruments in chemistry. A, B, is a deal screen, so constructed, that A opens as a door, whilst B remains fixed. C, pump for exhausting the common aii;, and condensing the gases. D, the metallic box of the blow-pipe, for containing the condensed mixed gases. E, the bladder, containing the gaseous mixture for com- pression. F, the stop-cock of the jet, on the out- side of the screen. G, H, a glass or brass tube for the jet. I, the spirit lamp for igniting the gases. A, A, A, the box for the gases. B, B, a brass tube, closed at the bottom, called the trough, which is fixed air-tight into the box. C, is a small tube in the interior, inserted into the bottom of the trough ; two or four holes are made from the trough into this tube, and open a communication to the gases in the box* D, is a circular flat valve, lined with oiled silk or leather. E, is a central pin, which covers the holes, and prevents the passage of any thing from the trough into the box. F, is an intersection of the trough, by fine wire gauze. G, is a small chamber, communicating by a fine tube with the interior of the trough ; and just be- low the orifice of this tube, is a second piece of very fine wire gauze. H, the stop-cock, which connects the cap with a jet pierced, having a circular mo- tion. A piece of fine wire gauze covers the end of the tube at C, to stop the passage of any thing from the box, which may prevent the action of the valve. S78 Description of MacJdnes, THE WATCH. Fig. 1. C, the upper plate D, pillar plate b, ratchet wheel X, minute wheel Y, hour wheel Z, hour hand W, minute hand Fig. 2. D, the pillar plate E, E, pillars A, barrel D, the chain F, fusee G, first cog-wheel e, g, lever and stop of chain H, centre wheel I, third wheel contrate wheel L, balance or crown wheel Fig. 3. C, the upper plate b, pendulum spring 2, curb r, r, ring F, S, arc of regulation 0, p, balance ^ Fig. 4. C, the upper plate D, the pillar plate E, E, pillars A, the barrel d, the chain F, the fusee b, ratchet X, minute wheel y, the hour wheel z, hour hand W, minute hand G, first cog-wheel H, centre wheel 1, third wheel K, contrate wheel N, cock of the verge n, common pinion 0, p, balance M, pottance The term watch is well known to apply only to those time-keepers which are of form and shape admitting them to be carried in the pocket. Dr. Hook, about the year 1650, first rendered the ma- chinery for registering time of sufficient porta- bility, by adapting the spiral spring to the balance ; by the vibrations of which, the action of the pen- dulum in the clock is produced in a compressed form. The great principle of the watch thus im- proved, this most curious and useful machine, was brought to a state of practical accuracy by Tom- pion. Parts of a Watch, Parts of a Watch. 0 C Description of Machines. 3T9 COTTON-SPINNING MACHINE. Fig. 1. A, A, the bobbings for rovings b, c, d, rollers E, spindle band e, e, spindles B, c, spindle frames h, h, supporting forks k, k, thread bobbins m, supporting rail D, D, verticle spindle E, drum n, spindle driving strap r, wheel P, pinion to face wheel S, spindle, R, wheel T, wheel driving spindle S w, a bolt for throwing out of gear X, Hfting sockets of bolt w o, power driving strap y, locking bar In the figure A represents the bobbings filled with rovings to be spun into thread ; they are set up in a frame over-head, and are conducted down at a, a, through rollers d, which extend it in length, ten, twelve, or sixteen times, according as the yam to be spun is to be finer or coarser. This is deli- vered out to the spinning apparatus or spindles: these are straight steel arbors, on the lower end of which the pulleys receive bands for turning them. These spindles are mounted in a frame common to them all, which consists of two rails B, C, the lower one supporting the points or toes of the spin- dles, and the other having bearings for the cylin- drical parts of each spindle, and a wire is fixed over each to keep them up to their bearings. Above this bearing, the spindle is only a straight cylin- drical wire, and on the upper end of it the fork or flyers h are fastened, either by screwing on, or they they are stuck fast by friction, which is suflScient to carry it about. The two arms or branches of the flyer are sufficiently distant from them, to revolve round clear about the bobbin k, which is fitted loosely upon the spindle, and with liberty to slide freely up and down upon it. The weight of the bobbin is supported by resting on a piece of wood 380 Description of Machines. attached to a rail M, which has a slow rising and falling motion, equal in extent to the length of the ^ bobbin between its shoulders, by which means the thread as it comes through the eye is formed at the ends of either of the branches h, of the flyer, and is wound by the motion thereof upon the bobbin. It becomes equally distributed throughout its length, giving it a cyhndrical figure instead of keeping all the thread at one part like a barrel. The motion of the whole machine is communi- cated in the same manner as the roving frame, by a vertical spindle D, to a drum E, which receives a strap n, for one frame, and another o, for a similar one. The former of these straps extends the whole length of the machine, turning all the vertical spin- dles p, on both sides of the frame, by means of pulleys on the lower ends of them. Each of these vertical spindles puts in motion four spindles and the rollers belonging to them ; the former by the bands f, which go round the wheel r, upon the spindles P, and the rollers it turns by a pinion at the top of each roller. COTTON WEAVING MACHINE. Figures 2, 3, and 4. d, d, e, e, heddle rods r, connecting pulley D, E, treddles y, z, yarns A, cloth beam B, yarn beam H, the shuttle race M, the seat G, the batton R, cane frame T, T, separating rods k, k, pickers I, I, troughs P, pecker handle Fig. 4, shuttle m, eye of shuttle n, n, shuttle rollers G, G, upright of the batton k, the bobbin R, the weight F, G, the batton This figure represents a side-view of a cotton- Cotton Weaving Machine. Description of Machines. 381 weaving machine. The ends of the yarn are made fast to a beam A, called the cloth-beam, and upon which they are rolled up after being made into cloth ; d, d, are two sticks connected together by several threads, the number of which is equal to half the number of yarns upon the warp; this system of threads is called a heddle ; e, e, is another similar heddle. Behind the former, and in the middle of each thread composing the heddle, is a loop through which the yarns of the warp are passed, one half of them going through the loops of the heddle e, e, and the other half passing between the threads of the heddle e, e, and afterwards through the eyes of the other heddle d, d. The two heddles d, d, and e, e, are connected together by two small cords going over pulleys r, suspended from the top of the loom, so that when one heddle is drawn down, the other will be raised up, as shewn in the figure ; the heddles receive their motion from levers or treddles D, E, moved by the weaver's feet, the yarns of the warp being passed alternately through the loops of the heddles, so that by pressing dovv^n one treddle, as D, all the yarns y, belonging to the heddle d, are drawn down, and by means of the cords and pulleys r, the other heddle e, with all the yarns z. belonging to it, are raised up, leaving a space of about two inches between the two sets of yarn. F, G, G, H, I, is a frame called the batton, sus- pended by its upper bar F, from the upper rail of the loom, so that it can swing backwards and for- wards. The bottom bar H, has boards shewn sepa- rate in figure 3, is much broader than riie rails G, G, and projects before their plane about an inch and a half, forming a shelf, called a shuttle-race* The end of the bar H, has boards nailed on each side of it, and at the ends, to form two short troughs I, I, in which pieces of wood k, k, called pickers or drivers, are guided by two small wires fixed at one end to the uprights G, G, and at the other ends 382 Description of Machines. to the end pieces of the troughs I, I. Each picker has a string fastened to it, which is tied to a handle o P, which the weaver holds in his right hand when at work, to pull the picker backwards and forwards. The shuttle figure 4, is a small piece of wood pointed at each end, about six inches long, having an oblong mortice in it, containing a small bobbin K, on which is wound the thread for the woof, and at the end of it comes through a small hole m, in the shuttle called the eye. GAS-LIGHT APPARATUS. A, the fire-place. B the cast-iron retorts in which the coal for distillation is deposited. C, the brick furnace. D, E, the iron pipe for conducting the gas from the retorts at B, to the receiver or tank F, S. N, the tar vessel. G, the gasholder or gasometer. K, the pipe for conveying the gas to the purifier at H, filled with lime-water. I, a vessel for receiving the refuse. L, pipe for conveying the purified gas to the tank, where it ascends into G. V, V, balance-wheels, over which is suspended the weight W, and the gasometer G. T, the pipe for conveying away the refuse. The mode of lighting streets, houses, &c. with gas from coal, is an invention of the nineteenth century. The light afforded by the street-lamps previous to the year 1810, hardly enabled us to find our way. The case is now different, for the gas- lamps afford a light little inferior to day-light, and the streets are consequently divested of many dis- agreeables, formerly borne with, because they were inevitable. The gas with which these lamps are supplied is Gas 'Light Apparatus, i Description of Machines. 383 not generated on the spot, but in many cases at a very great distance. For the supply of several districts in London, and other towns, the gasometer and other apparatus for producing and purifying gas from coals, are situated in some convenient place, from whence the gas is conveyed in metallic pipes to the lamps, where it is destined to undergo com- bustion. THE STILL. A, is the furnace on which the still is placed ; B, the head or capital; c, the i^efrigeratory, or cooler, containing the worm ; and d, the vessel for receiving the distilled or condensed product. THE SAFETY LAMP. To obviate the destructive effects of carburetted hydrogen gas. Sir Humphrey Davy constructed the safety-lamp, since called by the miners " the Davy^^ The apertures in the gauze should be one-twentieth of an inch square. As the fire-damp cannot be in- flamed by ignited wire, the thickness of the wire is of no importance ; but wire of one-fortieth to one- sixtieth of an inch in diameter, is most convenient: but the thicker the wire, the more will the light be intercepted ; for the size of the apertures must never be more than one-twentieth of an inch square. When the wire-gauze safety-lamp is lighted and introduced into an atmosphere mixed with fire-damp, the effect will increase the length and size of the flame. When the inflammable gas forms as much 384 Description of Machines. as one-twentieth of the volume of air, the cylinder becomes filled with a feeble blue flame ; but the flame of the wick appears burning brightly within the blue flame, and the light of the wick continues until the fire-damp increases to one-sixth or one- fifth, when it is lost in. the flame of the fire-damp, which in this case fills the cylinder with a pretty strong fight. As long as any explosive mixture of gas exists in contact with the lamp, so long it will give light ; and when it is extinguished, (which hap- pens when the foul air constitutes as much a^ one- third of the volume of the atmosphere,) the air is no longer proper for respiration. The figure represents the wire-gauze safety-lamp. A, is the cistern which contains the oil ; b, the rim in which the wire-gauze cover is fastened to the cistern by a moveable screw ; c, an aperture for supplying oil, fitted with a screw or a cork ; d, the receptacle for the wick ; e, a wire for raising, low- ering, or trimming it, and which passes through a safe tube ; f, the wire-gauze cylinder, which should not have less than 625 apertures to a square inch ; G, the second top, three-quarters of an inch above the first ; h, a copper-plate, which may be in con- tact with the second top ; i, r, i, i, thick wires sur- roundmg the cage, to preserve it from being bent ; K, K, are rings to hold or hang it by. I'HE END. Printed by R. Gilbert, St. John's-square, London. A