South-eastern Independent. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1871-1871, 1871-07-14
BRISTLES AND BRUSHES,
BY OLIVER THoRNE.

our fingers, and clean our teeth, and tax
dust our of our clothes, and paint ou
houses, and-oh, dear can never tel
you half the necessary things for whicl
you are indebted to them.
Why, the amount of bristles used ever
year is something simply enormous, anC
almost impossible to believe England
alone, besides using the bristles of the
thousands Of swine killed in her owl
island, imports from Russia every year
two million pounds of bristles.
It's rather funny that we're indebted tC
such an untidy looking animal for the
means Of keeping clean, and when we sec
bristles on the pigs back, they don't look
as If they would do much toward keeping
anything clean They do have to 90
through very thorough course of scrub
bing 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
think they're all alike. In the first place
there are several different colors. When
they come they are divided into black,
yellow and white; but they have a still
further sorting into black, grey, yellow,
white and lilies. Think of lilies from a
pigs back.
But, funny as you may think it, 1 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 a nice old gentleman who
owned a 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 eat it up.
The old gentleman speak of had gen.
tlemanly horror of anything dirty, so he
resolved to try an experiment, and see if
pigs were untidy from choice or because
they were not usually fuI Inished with bath
ing conveniences.
His pig-pens were kept as nice as some
parlors. Every day they were thoroughly
washed out, and the last pail of water that
went into each pen went carefully on to
the unwilling animal They had clean
straw to lie on, and of course were fed
only on the nice white whey.
A trip through the piggery was the reg
ular thing for visitors to take. The old
gentleman would walk dQYn between the
two rows of pens, swinging his cane, and
OAO ~ OAOh . AI0lCA 1dLA1-
lily of pigs. One could contemplate eat
ing that pork without shudder
But was telling you about brush facto-
ries. believe.
The bristles are sorted, not only as to
color, but as to length, for some are three
inches long, while others are ten. Be-
sides this, the root ends of the bristles
must be kept together.
The next thing is to comb them. You
know if you comb your hair long time,
it will get slick and nice. 1t has the same
effect on bristles; so they have long
combing to go through.
Picking is the next operation, and that
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 a
shade lighter, or darker, than the rest?
After these sharp=eyed little folks have
been over them, the unfortunate bristles
have to be secured. Idon't know whether
they take soap and sand, as Bridget does to
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 a
brush, whether it is hair brush or paint
brush; but to the brush-maker there is a
vast difference. They divide tie 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, or
bundle of bristles; but your hair brush is
compound, because it has lots of little
punches of bIistles.
But don'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- DUN and tive
dle-dee, but there is an important differ
ence, and
Thirdly: The tufts side by side, like a
white-wash brush-if you ever saw one
or like the holes in a mouth organ, which
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 paint
brushes, that come in your box of paints.
They are not made of brisiles however,
but of the soft hairs of animals, such as
the sable and the badger.
The hairs are cleaned in alum water,
soaked in warm water, dried, combed, and
sorted. The brush maker takes of these
hairs, Just enough for brush, lays it in a
little place she has, which holds it tight
while she winds thread around the root
ends of the bundle. l said she, for only
wOmen's fingers are delicate enough to ar
range the soft hairs so that they will form
a point, and not a blunt end when wet.
The quills for the handles are prepared
- ~. L,
them. When the brush is ready, the op-
orator takes the quill from the water,
puts the hairs in, point first, to the large
end of the quill. Then, by a neat little
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
holds the brush very tight.
I'm afraid good many birds have to die
to furnish the quilts, for they use swans,
geese, ducks, pigeons and larks'
quills, according to the size of the brush.
Your tiniest paint-brush probably grew on
the wing of lark, while the big one that
you daub with, had no grsnder home than
the wing of goose.
When the bundle of hair, or bristles, get
too big for quilts, they have 10 go into tin
tubes, with wooden handles. But some
brushes, such as house painters use, are
even too large for tin tubes, and then they
are managed another way.
The brush.maker 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 1
the wooden handle is in the middle of the
bristles, but the big end is the one he
wants among the bristles when it is done;
so after it is bound up as tight as possible