Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1886-05-29
BRUSh.MAKlNG.


OUTSTANDING.
| Peculiar Features Of Di1srent Kinds Of
| Brushes-Ificks Of the Trade.
When the bristles of the wild boar Of
Russia are imported, they are very dirty,
and are not straight. The curve is ow.
ing to the fact that the bristles grow
toward the tail of the animal and hug
the body. By boiling they are made
plhble, and are then bound with cord
in punches an inch in diameter, and
dried in rooms kept at temperature Of
12O degrees. As bristles are bought by
weight, the purchaser of raw material
loses ten per cent. by the absorption OF
the moisture, and If he washes them he
loses another ten per cent. because OF
the weight of dirt of which they are re-
| lieved.
The importer Of bristles always stores
them in q wet warehouse on the river
front, so they will absorb water and
weigh more He also binds each bum
die with about fifty feet of cord, which
is sometimes substituted for the native
bark string which is put around the
bundles in Russia, and the cord will
drink in another generous allowance of
moisture, which must be dried out at
the expense of the brushmaker. Black
bristles are the lowest grade, gray
next, yellow third, and white are the
most expensive. Backing brushes
are emade of horse-hair as well as
bristles. The bootblack who has
stand on Park Row or Broadway will
use a horse-hair brush, because no
matter how thick the dirt and backing
may be on the boot, the horse hair will
polish over it all and do the job quick
ly. At the Hoffman House and Fifth
Avenue Hotel the bootman uses bris-
tie brush which ne would pay one dol
lar for at retail, but he usually buys
them by the dozen and orders for $50
worth are not few. A bristle brush
takes off all the backing which has
gathered from previous shines, and
pnts on thin, hard polish that lasts
the travelling man or Senator all wet
day. There is a place in Chicago
called the Chicago Boot-Blacking Par
lor, where 1,500 shines are made in q
day, only with bristle brushes, and
they send to a New York firm to get
them. You can not sell brush to the
proprietor of hotel backing stand
which has not q French polish and a
groove for the fingers and thumb.
Probably every man, woman or
child uses hair brush. but not one in
thousand knows where the bristles
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 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, or stick them in
holes with cement, they gauge the
five or ten ounces of bristles SO that
the allowance will hold out for the en-
tire brush. This is done solely by
touch, and the brushmaker's knack is
the estimate of his skill and salary.
They are paid by the piece in most
places, and unless brush is correctly
made they must take it apart and make
it again. Many earn fifty dollars a
week
The hair brush in 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 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 bristle is his needle.
There is a fiber or nap on bristle so
noticeable that if one tries to work it
between the thumb and forefinger
against the nap the bristle will move
in directly the opposite direction from
that intended.
The public know so little of the
quality of bristles that manufacturers
have found it easy to deceive them
with cheap limitations, and some firms
make nothing but the inferior article.
Their factories are called slaughter
houses in the trade. They pay their
hands by the week and undersell the
market. A fibrous root called tampi-
co, found in Mexico near the city of
Tampico. can be split up into bristles
when dried and prepared. 1t looks
like a bunch of bristles, but has red
dish 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 a steady light and slowly.
In use, tampico mats down and the
brush is worthless in short time;
bristles always spring back in place. -