1. There are few manufactured articles in more general use than
brushes. This has arisen from their great utility, and the low prices
at which they can be purchased. The productions of the brush-maker's
labor are denominated variously, according to the purposes to which
they are to be applied.
2. The operations connected with this business are very simple, as
there is scarcely a tool employed which is not familiar to every other
class of mechanics. The brush-maker, however, does not manufacture
every part of the brush. He procures his wooden _stocks_ and handles
from various sources, but chiefly from the turner, and bone handles,
from the tooth-brush handle-maker.
3. The first part of the process which may be considered as belonging
particularly to the brush-maker, consists in boring the holes for the
reception of the bristles. This is done with a _bit_ of a proper size,
which is kept in motion with a lathe, while the wood is brought
against it with both hands. To enable the operator to make the holes
in the right place and in the proper direction, a pattern is applied
to the hither side of the stock.
4. The greater part of the bristles used by the brush-makers in the
United States, are imported from Russia and Germany. Large quantities,
however are obtained from Pennsylvania, and some parts of the Western
States. American bristles are worth from thirty to fifty cents per
pound, a price sufficiently high, one would suppose, to induce the
farmers to preserve them, when they butcher their swine. Were this
generally done, a tolerable supply of the shorter kinds of bristles
might be obtained in our own country.
5. When the bristles come into the hands of the brush-maker, the long
and short, and frequently those of different colors, are mixed
together. These are first assorted, according to color; and those of a
whitish hue are afterwards washed with potash-ley and soap, to free
them from animal fat, and then whitened by bleaching them with the
fumes of brimstone.
6. The bristles are next combed with a row of steel teeth, for the
purpose of placing them in a parallel direction, and with a view of
depriving them of the short hair which may be intermixed. The workman,
immediately after combing a handful, assorts it into separate parcels
of different lengths. This is very readily done, by pulling out the
longest bristles from the top, until those which remain in the hand
have been reduced to a certain length, which is determined by a gauge
marked with numbers. At each pulling, the handful is reduced in height
near half an inch.
7. The stocks and the bristles having been thus prepared, they are
next fastened together. This is effected either with wire or by a
composition of tar and rosin. The wire is used in all cases in which
the fibre is doubled; but when the bristles are required in their full
length, as in sweeping-brushes, the adhesive substance is employed.
8. It is superfluous to enter into detail, to show the manner in which
the wire and composition are applied in fixing the bristles, as any
person, with an ordinary degree of observation, can readily comprehend
the whole, by examining the different kinds of brushes which are met
with in every well-regulated household. The bristles, after having
been fixed to the stock or handle, are trimmed with the shears or
knife, according as they are required to be equal or unequal in
length.
9. The brush is next handed over to the _finisher_, who applies to the
back of the stock a thin veneer of wood, which secures the wire
against the oxidizing influence of the atmosphere, and gives to the
brush a finished appearance. The stock, together with the veneer, is
then brought to the desired shape with suitable instruments, polished
with sand-paper, and covered with varnish.
10. Those brushes which the manufacturer designs to be ornamented, are
sent in great quantities to the _ornamenter_, who applies to them
various figures, in gold or Dutch leaf, japan or bronze, and sometimes
prints, which have been struck on paper from engraved plates.
[Illustration: INN-KEEPER.]