Mower County transcript., 1871-07-20
BRISTLES AND BRUSHES,
BY OLIVER THORNE.

BY OLIVER THORNE.
How many porkcrs do you suppose have
to die every year, that we may have their
bristles to smooth our hair, and whiten
our fingers, and clean our teeth, and take
dust our Of our clothes, and paint our
houses, and-oh, dear! can never tell
you half the necessary things for which
you are indebted to them.
Why, the amount Of bristles used every
year is something simply enormous, and
almost impossible to believe. England
alone, besides using the bristles Of the
thousands Of swine killed in her own
island imports from Russia every year,
two million pounds Of bristles.
It's rather funny that we're indebted to
such al untidy looking animal for the
means of keeping clean, and when we see
bristles on the pigs back, they don't look
as if they would do much toward keeping
anything clean. They do have to 20
through very thorough course of scrub.
bling before they go into brushes.
When they arrive at the brush factory
they are packed in barrels, and extremely
unpleasant to handle, and the first thing
Of course-is to wash them. The next
operation is to sort them, for you needn't
there are several different colors When
they come they are divided into black
yellow and white; but they have still
further sorting into black, grey, yellow
white and lilies. Think of lilies from q
pigs back.
But, iunny as you may think it, l have
seen one lot of pigs that looked almost
like lilies themselves. I'll venture to say
that all their bristles were lilies. They
| belonged to nice old gentle who
owned cheese factory in New York State
Perhaps you know that in these factories
they take fresh milk, and make into
cheese. OF course there's good deal left
which they call whey. And they gener
| ally keep pigs to cat it up.
The old gentleman speak Of had a gen
tlemanly horror OF anything dirty, so h
resolved to try an experiment, and see j
pigs were untidy from choice or because
they were not usually furnished with bath
ing convcniences.
His pig-peDs were kept as nice as some
parlors. Every day they were thoroughly
washed out and the last pail Of water thai
went into each pen went carefully on tC
the unwilling animal. They had clear
straw to lie on, and of course were fec
only on the nice white whey.
A trip through the Iiggery was the reg
ular thing for visitors to take The ole
gentleman would walk down between tho
two rows Of pens, swinging his cane, anl
detying any one to show neatcr fam
lily Of pigs. One could contemplate cat
ing that pork without shudder.
But was telling you about brush facto
ries, believe.
The bristles are sorted, not only as te
color, but as to length, for some are three
inches long, while others are ten. Be
sides this, the root ends of the bristle.
must be kept together.
The next thing is to comb them. Yor
know if you comb your hair a long time
it will get slick and nice. 1t has the same
effect on bristles; so they have a Ions
combing to go through.
! Picking is the next operation, and tina
is done by children. Poor little things =
how would you like to spend the long
summer days, picking over bristles, care
fully taking out every one that was {
shade lighter, or darker, than the rest?
After these sharp. eyed little folks have
been over them, the unfortunate bristle.
have to be secured. Idon't know whether
they take soap and sand, as Bridget does tt
the kitchen floor, but the result is the
same they are much whittier, and are now
ready for brushes.
Now, to ignorant outsiders, brush is s
brush, whether it is hair brush or paint
brush; but to the brush-maker there is g
vast difference. They divide the whole
army of brushes into two grand divisions
single brushes and compound brushes.
Your paint brush belongs to the single
division, because it has but one tuft, ol
bundle of bristles; but your hair brush il
compound, because it has lots of little
punches of bristlcs.
But dou't fancy we have got to the end
of divisions. No indeed! Brush making
is reduced to science. OF single brushes
we have,
First: Brushes inserted into the handle
Secondly: Handles inserted into the
brush.
That sounds like twedle dunn and two
dle-uee, but there is All important differ
ence, and
1hiauZy: The tufts side by side, like a
white wash brush-if you ever saw one
or like the holes in mouth organ, which
l know you've seen.
l must tell you how they make single
brushes, before we go to the compound.
The easiest to make are the little naint
brushes, that come in your box of paints.
They are not made Of brislcs however,
but of the soft hairs of animals, such as
the sable and the badger
The hairs arc cleaned in alum water,
soaked in warm water, dried, combcd, and
sorted. The brush maker takes of these
hairs, just enough for a brush, lays it in q
little place she has, which holds it tight
while she winds a thrt AL around the root
ends Of the bundle. | said she, for only
w'lncn's fingers are delicate enough to ar
range the soft hairs so that they will form
q point, and not blunt end when wet.
The quilts for the handles are prepared
by soaking in hot water, which swclls
hem. When the brush is ready, the op.
TRAITOR takes the quill from The water,
cuts the hairs in, point first, to the large
pnd of the quill. Then, by neat little
contrivance, it is drawn through till the
tied part comes down to the small end of
the Quill. There it is. left, and when the
Quill gets cold, it contracts, or grows
snallcr-and holds the brush very tight.
I'm afraid a good many birds have to die
to furnish the quills, for they use swans,
turkeys, geese, ducks, pigeons and larks'
quilts, according to the size Of the brush
Your tiniest painl-brush probably grew on
the wing Of lark, while the big one that
you daub with, had no grander home than
tho wing of a goose.
When the bundle Of hair, or bristlcs, get
too big tor quilts, they have to go into tin
tubes, with wooden handles. But some
brushes, such as house-rajntcrs use, are
even too large for Tin tubes, and then they
are managed another way.
The brlsh.lnaker binds his bundle of
bristles as tight as he can, with strong
cords, which has been dipped in glue.
While he is doing this the small end of
the wooden handle is in tho middle of the
bristles, but the big end is the one he
wants among the bristlcs when it is done:
so after it is bound up as tight as possible
he pounds the handle with great force, and
drives it up through the bristles, till the
large end is where he wants it. That
makes it much tighter than he could tic it.
You look at one and see how tight it is
It's funny to see man make scrub.
bring brush. He takes piece of wood
already fixed for him, with holes bored all
over it. Then he takes up little bundle
of bristles, makes them even at one end.
dips them into melted pitch--which prob.
ably, you know, is the blacklist and stick
lest stuff you ever saW-thcn he winds a
piece of twlnc around them, dips again in.
to the pitch, and just sticks it into the
hole with one twist. There it stays in
SDite Of hot wafer aD6 bor.} ,,,,,hl: