The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1885-09-26
BRUSHES.

How They Are Manufactured and OF what
p = STss z They Arc ieOmPosodsl sfT
There is not a household convenience
or alpersonal implement that is OF more
Importance than the brush, and its name
is many; a., catalogue of different
brushes would fill a column in this
paper. Yet few know how brush 10
made and of what it is composed. 1t
has been supposed by some that split
whalebone-which is only another
form of hair or horn-was used as
cheap substitute for bristles, and read
ers of forty or fifty years old will re-
member. that black bristled brushes
were avoided, and only white ones
were salable. In fact, however, whale
bone is much more costly than bristles,
and is only used for special brushes.
And even the bristle supply is be-
coming costly and scarce. Hereaway
we raise no more bristled hogs; most
of them have coating of soft hairs
sparsely distributed, and some OF the
finer sorts have a. curly wool. Even
the Southern hogs, which self-fared In
the woods,i are dying out, and higher
type of the class SWS is taking
their place. Nearly all the bristles
that are used in this country come
from Russia, and they cost the brush
maker from one dollar and a quarter
| to three dollars pound. They come
tied up in neat. rolls, and assorted as to
lengths and stiffness.
Horse hair is largely used for brushes;
| there is no material that will so finely
polish sewing machine needles, as they
come from the last machine process, as
horse hair brushes. Horse hair makes
the soft brushes for plush, velvet, and
for the silk hat makers.
The vegetable kingdom is largely
drawn upon for brush material. 10
say nothing of brooms, there is grass
called Tampico, from the place of its
expectation, that's used for hand scrub
bling brushes. 1t is round fiber OF
light straw color. quite tough and elias
tic, and possessing the unusual quality
of retaining its rigidity and elasticity
however much soaked it may be in wa
ter. m
II ,Flattened steel wire, with the temper
in, is used for fine cleaning brushes and
for street and stable use. These are so
coarse and rigid that they would be
better designated as scrapers.
But there is wire brush that is the
very opposite of these. 1t is made of
steel or brass wire that is so very fine
that it goes quite beyond the finest
gauge made in this country. 1t goes
to what is known to the trade as forty
four English gauge. Brushes made
1 from this are employed in the produc-
j ton of q peculiar finish on silver.
When silver is used in plate, whether
it is solid or an external deposit, it is
not often compressed, or hardened, by
1 any mechanical means, except when II
Il is FURNISHED to make polish. The
"satin finish of plate and silver orna
i. ments, so much admired of late years
is produced by these brushes of tine
steel and brass wire. The brushes are
rotary, and are run at high velocity
The effect of their action on the sof
surface of silver is to raise the particles
SO that they will not reflect the light as
polished surface will, but give a soft
I velvety, retroactive light to the eye
This elegant effect is produced by The
soft wire brushes that feel under the
hand almost like cylinders of down.
u0 GOIlLnOn way VI lhoOOnihS blAo
ties and hairs and Tampico grass il
brushes is with common pitch, which
is kept hot at convenient bench, anC
is kept fluid by the admixture of littlt
tallow. The workman grasps from {
bunch or pile of bristles few in his
fingers, doubles them over at the mid
die, winds bit of fine Irvine about the
butt or bend. dips that end in the no
pitch, and presses the bunch in a holC
in the wooden back of the brush to be
But a better process is wiring o.
twining; in either case the loopet
brush being held by a wire or Irvine
that passes through small hole in thu
back of the larger hole that receives
the bristles. But, as all these wires o.
strings are seen on the back of thu
brush. they must be concealed by ,
false back for nice work.
The writer has a specimen with /;
solid back that was made more thar
fifteen years ago. In this the bristles
doubled, were led by wire staple int
the holes, and the ends of the stapl,
being crossed by dies the wire wa
forced into the wood by plunger, anC
really locked in theS solid material
The brush has been in constant us,
during all these years and is ''as gooC
as new. p Scientific american.