Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1886-03-05
How Brushes are Made.

Boss Tweed was q brushmaker. He
learned his trade at Lansingburg, n. Y,
which was the center for all brush facto-
ries in America not many years ago. 1t
was then thought that nice brushes could
be made only with French bristles, but a
workman from the old country explained
that the superiority was due only to boil
ing, and now an American manufacturer
can prepare his own bristles When the
bristles of the wild boar of Russia are i'm
ported, they are very dirty, and are not,
straight. The curve is owing to the fact
that the bristles grow toward the tail of
the animal, and hug the body. By boil
ing they are made pliable, and are then
bound with cord in punches an inch in
diameter, and dried in rooms kept at q
temperature of 1870 degrees. Black bris-
ties are the lowest grade, gray next, yell
low third, and white are the most expen-
sive.
When rosy, but perhaps delicate,
woman goes to the Turkish baths for the
first time, she is treated by the attendant
with only a goats hair brush. Her soft,
pink flesh could not stand anything
rougher. So the brush trade must fur
nish what is wanted for every class of
people and all conditions of life. The
married woman who has become con-
slant attendant at the baths is rubbed
with a brush made of the name of a
horse. 1t gives pleasant titilation, and
brings the warm blush to the flesh, which
becomes aglow when the towels are used.
Nothing but tail hair brush will bring
the pleasurabie sensation to the ''old
stager," and if goats hair brush were
used she would probably say it tickled
her, and ask for something harsher. Peo-
pie often talk of cancels hair brushes, but
there is no such thing in the market.
They are made of squirrel tail hair, which
is got from the red squirrel of Russia,
though perhaps the majority of cancels
hair brushes are only skunk hair.
Probably every man, woman and child
in New York uses hair brush, but not
one in thousand knows where the
brlstles come from or how the brush is
made. On entering a factory one is
struck by the fact that no machinery is
used. If it were not for boring holes
there would not even be a lathe in the
whole establishment. Every brush has
an exact weight of bristles in it. On the
benches in front of the workmen are
scales in which they put the bristles
which are to form brush, and then as
they sew them in, orrstick them in holes
with cement, they gauge the five or ten
ounces of bristles so that the allowance
will hold out for the entire brush. This is
done solely by touch, and the brush
makers knack is the estimate of his skill
and salary. They are paid by the piece
in most places, and unless brush is cor
rectly made they must take it apart and
make it again. Many earn $50 week.
The hair brush III the rough is piece
of wood, perhaps six or twelve inches
long and one or two wide, and has no
curved shape. The bristles are sewed in
with wire before the handle is sawed out
or the end rounded. There are so few
men in this country who can cut out the
handles of brush with artistic accuracy
and beauty, that they command large
salaries. The stiff end of a bristle is the
root. The other end is split, and it is
owing to this fact that the shoemaker
has what he calls waxed end for sewing
with. He braids or twists the two parts
of the split end with his heavy
sewing thread and the bristles is his
needle. There is fiber or nap on a
bristle so noticeable that if one tries to
work it between the thumb and fore
finger against the nap the bristle will
move in directly the opposite direction
from that intended
The public know so little of the quail
ity of bristles that manufacturers have
found it easy to deceive them with cheap
limitations, and some firms make nothing
but the inferior article. A tibrous root
called tampico, found in Mexico near the
city of Tampico, can be split up into
bristles when dried and prepared. II
looks like bunch of bristles, but has
a reddish tinge. Rice root is used, too,
for horse brushes. A genuine bristle can
be told by the way it burns-flashing up
and curling like snake. Tampico
burns with steady light, and slowly.
in use, tampico mats down, and the
brush is worthless in short time; bris
ties always spring back in place. --Nea
York Star.