Delaware inquirer. (Wilmington, Del.) 1859-18??, 1859-08-06
Manual Dexterity in Manufac.
lures.

The body of hat (beaver) is generally
made of one part of red woS, three parts
saxony, add eight parts ray rs fur. The
mixing or working up ofthy materials is an
operation which depends VI much upon the
dexterity Of the workmen, and years of long
| practice are required to render man proici-
emit. The wool and fur are laid on bench,
first separately, and then together. The work
man takes a machine somewhat like small
violin bow this is suspended from the ceiling
by the middle, few inches above the bench.
The workman, by means of small pieces OF
wood, causes the end of his Chow" to vibrate
quickly against the particles of wool and fur.
This operation, continued for some time, eff
\ fectually opens the clotted masses and lays
open the fibres--these flying upwards, by the
action of the string, are by the manual and
wonderful dexterity of the workman caught
in their descent, in a peculiar manner, and
| laid in soft layer Of equable thickness. This
operation, apparently so simple and easily eff
fected, is in reality very difficult, and only to
be learned by constant practice.
In type-founding, when the melted metal
has been poured into the mould, the work
man, by peculiar turn of his hand, or rather
jerk, causes the metal to be shaken into all
the minute interstices of the mould.
In manufacturing initiative pearls, the glass
bead forming the pearl has two holes in its
exterior; the liquid made from a pearl-like
powder is inserted into the hollow of the head
by tube, and by peculiartwist of the hpnd
the single drop introduced is caused to spfead
itself over the whole surface of the interior,
without superfuity or deficiency being occa-
stoned.
In waxing the corks of backing bottles
much cleverness is displayed. The wax is
melted in an open dish, and without brush,
nr nth
wakes each cork neatly aud expeditiously,
simply by turning the bottle upside down
and dipping the cork in the melted wax.
Practice has enabled the men to do this so
neatly that scarcely any wax is allowed to
touch the bottle. Again, to turn the bottle
to its proper position, without spilling any of
the wax, is apparently an exceedingly easy
matter but it is only by peculiar movement
of the wrist and hand, impossible to describe
and difficult to initiate, that it is properly eff
fected. One man can seal one hundred in an
hour.
In FASTING and afixing the labels on the
backing bottles much dexterity is also dis
played. As one man can paste as many la
bells as two men can affix, groups of three arc
employed i'll this department. In FASTING, the
dexterity is shown by the final touch OF the
brush, which jerks the label off the heap, and
which ia caught in the left hand of the work
man and thrown aside. This is done so rap
idly that the three-fold operation of FASTING.
jerking and laying aside is repeated no less
than two thousand times an hour. The af-
fixing of the label is a very neat and dexter
Gus operation. To the watchful spectator the
bottle is scarcely taken up in his hand ero it
is set down labelled. In packing the bottles
into casks much neatness is displayed.
The heads Of certain kinds OF pins are
formed by coil or two of fine wire placed at
one end. This is cut off from long coil fixed
in a lathe. The workman cuts off one or two
turns of the coil guided entirely by his eye, !
and such is the manual dexterity displayed |
in the operation, that workman will cut of |
20, 900 to 10000 heads without making mis- |
take as to the number of turns in each. An |
expert workman can fasten on from 10, 900 to |
$4,000 ofthese heads in day.
The poioting of pins and needles is done
solely by the hand. The workman holds !
thirty or forty pin lengths in his hand, spread |
open like fan and wonderful dexterity is
shown in bringing each part to the stone, and |
presenting every point of its circumference to |
its grinding &C ton. In finally paperng nee
dies for sale, the females can count and paper !
3,000oin an hour.