Chapter XXI: Part 21

FINGER-AND-TOE, CLUB ROOT or ANBURY, a destructive plant-disease known botanically as _Plasmodiophora Brassicae_, which attacks cabbages, turnips, radishes and other cultivated and wild members of the order Cruciferae. It is one of the so-called Slime-fungi or Myxogastres. The presence of the disease is indicated by nodules or warty outgrowths on the root, which sometimes becomes much swollen and ultimately rots, emitting an unpleasant smell. The disease is contracted from spores present in the soil, which enter the root. The parasite develops within the living cells of the plant, forming a glairy mass of protoplasm known as the plasmodium, the form of which alters from time to time. The cells which have been attacked increase enormously in size and the disease spreads from cell to cell. Ultimately the _plasmodium_ becomes resolved into numerous minute round spores which, on the decay of the root, are set free in the soil. A preventive is quicklime, the application of which destroys the spores in the soil. It is important that diseased plants should be burned, also that cruciferous weeds, such as shepherd's purse, charlock, &c., should not be allowed to grow in places where plants of the same order are in cultivation.

1, Turnip attacked by the disease, reduced.
2, A cell of the tissue containing the plasmodium; the smaller cells
at the sides are unaffected.
3, Infected cell, showing spore formation. 2, 3, highly magnified.]

FINGER-PRINTS. The use of finger-prints as a system of identification (q.v.) is of very ancient origin, and was known from the earliest days in the East when the impression of his thumb was the monarch's sign-manual. A relic of this practice is still preserved in the formal confirmation of a legal document by "delivering" it as one's "act and deed." The permanent character of the finger-print was first put forward scientifically in 1823 by J.E. Purkinje, an eminent professor of physiology, who read a paper before the university of Breslau, adducing nine standard types of impressions and advocating a system of classification which attracted no great attention. Bewick, the English draughtsman, struck with the delicate qualities of the lineation, made engravings of the impression of two of his finger-tips and used them as signatures for his work. Sir Francis Galton, who laboured to introduce finger-prints, points out that they were proposed for the identification of Chinese immigrants when registering their arrival in the United States. In India, Sir William Herschel desired to use finger-prints in the courts of the Hugli district to prevent false personation and fix the identity upon the executants of documents. The Bengal police under the wise administration of Sir E.R. Henry, afterwards chief commissioner of the London metropolitan police, usefully adopted finger-prints for the detection of crime, an example followed in many public departments in India. A transfer of property is attested by the thumb-mark, so are documents when registered, and advances made to opium-growers or to labourers on account of wages, or to contracts signed under the emigration law, or medical certificates to vouch for the persons examined, all tending to check the frauds and impostures constantly attempted.

The prints depend upon a peculiarity seen in the human hand and to some extent in the human foot. The skin is traversed in all directions by creases and ridges, which are ineradicable and show no change from childhood to extreme old age. The persistence of the markings of the finger-tips has been proved beyond all question, and this universally accepted quality has been the basis of the present system of identification. The impressions, when examined, show that the ridges appear in certain fixed patterns, from which an alphabet of signs or a system of notation has been arrived at for convenience of record. As the result of much experiment a fourfold scheme of classification has been evolved, and the various types employed are styled "arches," "loops," "whorls" and "composites." There are seven subclasses, and all are perfectly distinguishable by an expert, who can describe each by its particular symbol in the code arranged, so that the whole "print" can be read as a distinct and separate expression. Very few, and the simplest, appliances are required for taking the print--a sheet of white paper, a tin slab, and some printer's ink. Scars or malformations do not interfere with the result.

The unchanging character of the finger-prints has repeatedly helped in the detection of crime. We may quote the case of the thief who broke into a residence and among other things helped himself to a glass of wine, leaving two finger-prints upon the tumbler which were subsequently found to be identical with those of a notorious criminal who was arrested, pleaded guilty and was convicted. Another burglar effected entrance by removing a pane of glass from a basement window, but, unhappily for him, left his imprints, which were referred to the registry and found to agree exactly with those of a convict at large; his address was known, and when visited some of the stolen property was found in his possession. In India a murderer was identified by the brown mark of a blood-stained thumb he had left when rummaging amongst the papers of the deceased. This man was convicted of theft but not of the murder.

The keystone to the whole system is the central office where the register or index of all criminals is kept for ready reference. The operators need no special gifts or lengthy training; method and accuracy suffice, and abundant checks exist to obviate incorrect classification and reduce the liability to error.

AUTHORITIES.--F. Galton, _Finger Prints_ (1892), _Fingerprint
Directories_ (1895); E.R. Henry, _Classification and Uses of Finger
Prints_; A. Yvert, _L'Identification par les empreintes digitales
palmaires_ (1905); K. Windt, R.S. Kodicek, _Daktyloskopie. Verwertung
von Fingerabdrucken zu Identifizierungszwecken_ (Vienna, 1904); E.
Loeard, _La Dactyloscopie. Identification des recidivistes par les
empreintes digitales_ (1904); H. Faulds, _Guide to Finger-Print
Identification_ (1905); H. Gross, _Criminal Investigation_ (trans. J.
and J.C. Adam, 1907). (A. G.)

FINGO, or FENGU (_Ama-Fengu_, "wanderers"), a Bantu-Negro people, allied to the Zulu family, who have given their name to the district of Fingoland, the S.W. portion of the Transkei division of the Cape province. The Fingo tribes were formed from the nations broken up by Chaka and his Zulu; after some years of oppression by the Xosa they appealed to the Cape government in 1835, and were permitted by Sir Benjamin D'Urban to settle on the banks of the Great Fish river. They have been always loyal to the British, and have steadily advanced in social respects. They have largely adapted themselves to western culture, wearing European clothes, supporting their schools by voluntary contributions, editing newspapers, translating English poetry, and setting their national songs to correct music. The majority call themselves Christians and many of them have intermarried with Europeans. (See KAFFIRS.)

FINIAL (a variant of "final"; Lat. _finis_, end), an architectural term for the termination of a pinnacle, gable end, buttress, or canopy, consisting of a bunch of foliage, which bears a close affinity to the crockets (q.v.) running up the gables, turrets or spires, and in some cases may be formed by uniting four or more crockets together. Sometimes the term is incorrectly applied to a small pinnacle of which it is only the termination (see EPI).

FINIGUERRA, MASO [i.e. TOMMASO] (1426-1464), Florentine goldsmith, draughtsman, and engraver, whose name is distinguished in the history of art and craftsmanship for reasons which are partly mythical. Vasari represents him as having been the first inventor of the art of engraving (using that word in its popular sense of taking impressions on paper from designs engraved on metal plates), and Vasari's account was universally accepted and repeated until recent research proved it erroneous. What we actually know from contemporary documents of Finiguerra, his origin, his life, and his work, is as follows. He was the son of Antonio, and grandson of Tommaso Finiguerra or Finiguerri, both goldsmiths of Florence, and was born in Sta Lucia d'Ognissanti in 1426. He was brought up to the hereditary profession of goldsmith and was early distinguished for his work in niello. In his twenty-third year (1449) we find note of a sulphur cast from a niello of his workmanship being handed over by the painter Alessio Baldovinetti to a customer in payment or exchange for a dagger received. In 1452 Maso delivered and was paid for a niellated silver pax commissioned for the baptistery of St John by the consuls of the gild of merchants or Calimara. By this time he seems to have left his father's workshop: and we know that he was in partnership with Piero di Bartolommeo di Sali and the great Antonio Pollaiuolo in 1457, when the firm had an order for a pair of fine silver candlesticks for the church of San Jacopo at Pistoia. In 1459 we find Finiguerra noted in the house-book of Giovanni Rucellai as one of several distinguished artists with whose works the Casa Rucellai was adorned. In 1462 he is recorded as having supplied another wealthy Florentine, Cino di Filippo Rinuccini, with waist-buckles, and in the years next following with forks and spoons for christening presents. In 1463 he drew cartoons, the heads of which were coloured by Alessio Baldovinetti, for five or more figures for the sacristy of the duomo, which was being decorated in wood inlay by a group of artists with Giuliano da Maiano at their head. On the 14th of December 1464 Maso Finiguerra made his will, and died shortly afterwards.

These documentary facts are supplemented by several writers of the next generation with statements more or less authoritative. Thus Baccio Bandinelli says that Maso was among the young artists who worked under Ghiberti on the famous gates of the baptistery; Benvenuto Cellini that he was the finest master of his day in the art of niello engraving, and that his masterpiece was a pax of the Crucifixion in the baptistery of St John; that being no great draughtsman, he in most cases, including that of the above-mentioned pax, worked from drawings by Antonio Pollaiuolo. Vasari, on the other hand, allowing that Maso was a much inferior draughtsman to Pollaiuolo, mentions nevertheless a number of original drawings by him as existing in his own collection, "with figures both draped and nude, and histories drawn in water-colour." Vasari's account was confirmed and amplified in the next century by Baldinucci, who says that he has seen many drawings by Finiguerra much in the manner of Masaccio; adding that Maso was beaten by Pollaiuolo in competition for the reliefs of the great silver altar-table commission by the merchants' gild for the baptistery of St John (this famous work is now preserved in the Opera del Duomo). But the paragraph of Vasari which has chiefly held the attention of posterity is that in which he gives this craftsman the credit of having been the first to print off impressions from niello plates on sulphur casts and afterwards on sheets of paper, and of having followed up this invention by engraving copper-plates for the express purpose of printing impressions from them, and thus became the inventor and father of the art of engraving in general. Finiguerra, adds Vasari, was succeeded in the practice of engraving at Florence by a goldsmith called Baccio Baldini, who, not having much invention of his own, borrowed his designs from other artists and especially from Botticelli. In the last years of the 18th century Vasari's account of Finiguerra's invention was held to have received a decisive and startling confirmation under the following circumstances. There was in the baptistery at Florence (now in the Bargello) a beautiful 15th-century niello pax of the Coronation of the Virgin. The Abate Gori, a savant and connoisseur of the mid-century, had claimed this conjecturally for the work of Finiguerra; a later and still more enthusiastic virtuoso, the Abate Zani, discovered first, in the collection of Count Seratti at Leghorn, a sulphur cast from the very same niello (this cast is now in the British Museum), and then, in the National library at Paris, a paper impression corresponding to both. Here, then, he proclaimed, was the actual material first-fruit of Finiguerra's invention and proof positive of Vasari's accuracy.

Zani's famous discovery, though still accepted in popular art histories and museum guides, is now discredited among serious students. For one thing, it has been proved that the art of printing from engraved copper-plates had been known in Germany, and probably in Italy also, for years before the date of Finiguerra's alleged invention. For another, Maso's pax for the baptistery, if Cellini is to be trusted, represented not a Coronation of the Virgin but a Crucifixion. In the next place, its recorded weight does not at all agree with that of the pax claimed by Gori and Zani to be his. Again, and perhaps this is the strongest argument of any, all authentic records agree in representing Finiguerra as a close associate in art and business of Antonio Pollaiuolo. Now nothing is more marked than the special style of Pollaiuolo and his group; and nothing is more unlike it than the style of the Coronation pax, the designer of which must obviously have been trained in quite a different school, namely that of Filippo Lippi. So this seductive identification has to be abandoned, and we have to look elsewhere for traces of the real work of Finiguerra. The only fully authenticated specimens which exist are the above-mentioned tarsia figures, over half life-size, executed from his cartoons for the sacristy of the duomo. But his hand has lately been conjecturally recognized in a number of other things: first in a set of drawings of the school of Pollaiuolo at the Uffizi, some of which are actually inscribed "Maso Finiguerra" in a 17th-century writing, probably that of Baldinucci himself; and secondly in a very curious and important book of nearly a hundred drawings by the same hand, acquired in 1888 for the British Museum. The Florence series depicts for the most part figures of the studio and the street, to all appearance members of the artist's own family and workshop, drawn direct from life. The museum volume, on the other hand, is a picture-chronicle, drawn from imagination, and representing parallel figures of sacred and profane history, in a chronological series from the Creation to Julius Caesar, dressed and accoutred with inordinate richness according to the quaint pictures which Tuscan popular fancy in the mid-15th century conjured up to itself of the ancient world. Except for the differences naturally resulting from the difference of subject, and that the one series are done from life and the other from imagination, the technical style and handling of the two are identical and betray unmistakably a common origin. Both can be dated with certainty, from their style, costumes, &c., within a few years of 1460. Both agree strictly with the accounts of Finiguerra's drawings left us by Vasari and Baldinucci, and disagree in no respect with the character of the inlaid figures of the sacristy. That the draughtsman was a goldsmith is proved on every page of the picture-chronicle by his skill and extravagant delight in the ornamental parts of design--chased and jewelled cups, helmets, shields, breastplates, scabbards and the like,--as well as by the symmetrical metallic forms into which he instinctively conventionalizes plants and flowers. That he was probably also an engraver in niello appears from the fact that figures from the Uffizi series of drawings are repeated among the rare anonymous Florentine niello prints of the time (the chief collection of which, formerly belonging to the marquis of Salamanca, is now in the cabinet of M. Edmond de Rothschild in Paris). That he was furthermore an engraver on copper seems certain from the fact that the general style and many particular figures and features of the British Museum chronicle drawings are exactly repeated in some of those primitive 15th-century Florentine prints which used to be catalogued loosely under the names of Baldini or Botticelli, but have of late years been classed more cautiously as anonymous prints in the "fine manner" (in contradistinction to another contemporary group of prints in the "broad manner"). The fine-manner group of primitive Florentine engravings itself falls into two divisions, one more archaic, more vigorous and original than the other, and consisting for the most part of larger and more important prints. It is this division which the drawings of the Chronicle series most closely resemble; so closely as almost to compel the conclusion that drawings and engravings are by the same hand. The later division of fine-manner prints represent a certain degree of technical advance from the earlier, and are softer in style, with elements of more classic grace and playfulness; their motives moreover are seldom original, but are borrowed from various sources, some from German engravings, some from Botticelli or a designer closely akin to him, some from the pages of the British Museum Chronicle-book itself, with a certain softening and attenuating of their rugged spirit; as though the book, after the death of the original draughtsman-engraver, had remained in his workshop and continued to be used by his successors. We thus find ourselves in presence of a draughtsman of the school of Pollaiuolo, some of whose drawings bear an ancient attribution to Finiguerra, while all agree with what is otherwise known of him, and one or two are exactly repeated in extant works of niello, the craft which was peculiarly his own; others being intimately related to the earliest or all but the earliest works of Florentine engraving, the kindred craft which tradition avers him to have practised, and which Vasari erroneously believed him to have invented. Surely, it has been confidently argued, this draughtsman must be no other than the true Finiguerra himself. The argument has not yet been universally accepted, but neither has any competent criticism appeared to shake it; so that it may be regarded for the present as holding the field.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--See Bandinelli in Bottari, _Raccolta di lettere_
(1754), i. p. 75; Vasari (ed. Milanesi), i. p. 209, iii. p. 206;
Benvenuto Cellini, _I Trattati dell' orificeria_, &c. (ed. Lemonnier),
pp. 7, 12, 13, 14; Baldinucci, _Notizie dei professori di disegno_
(1845), i. pp. 518, 519, 533; Zani, _Materiali per servire_, &c.
(1802); Duchesne, _Essai sur les nielles_ (1824); Dutuit, _Manuel de
l'amateur d'estampes_, vol. i. pref. and vol. ii.; and for a full
discussion of the whole question, with quotations from earlier
authorities and reproductions of the works discussed, Sidney Colvin,
_A Florentine Picture Chronicle_ (1898). (S. C.)

FINISHING. The term _finishing_, as specially applied in the textile industries, embraces the process or processes to which bleached, dyed or printed fabrics of any description are subjected, with the object of imparting a characteristic appearance to the surface of the fabric, or of influencing its handle or feel. Strictly speaking, certain operations might be classed under this heading which are conducted previous to bleaching, dyeing, &c; e.g. mercerizing (q.v.), stretching and crabbing, singeing (see BLEACHING); but as these are not undertaken by the finisher, only those will be dealt with here which are not mentioned under other headings. By the various treatments to which the fabric is subjected in finishing, it is often so altered in appearance that it is impossible to recognize in it the same material that came from the loom or from the bleacher or dyer. On the other hand, one and the same fabric, subjected to different processes of finishing, may be made to represent totally different classes of material. In other cases, however, the appearance of the finished article differs but slightly from that of the piece on leaving the loom.

All processes of finishing are purely mechanical in character, and the most important of them depend upon the fact that in their ordinary condition (i.e. containing their normal amount of moisture), or better still in a damp state, the textile fibres are plastic, and consequently yield to pressure or tension, ultimately assuming the shape imparted to them. The old-fashioned box press, formerly largely used for household linen, owed its efficacy to this principle. At elevated temperatures the damp fibres become very much more plastic than at the ordinary temperature, the simplest form of finishing appliance based on this fact being the ordinary flat iron. Indeed it may safely be stated that most of the modern finishing processes have been evolved from the household operations of washing (milling), brushing, starching, mangling, ironing and pressing.

_Cotton Pieces._--In the ordinary process of bleaching, cotton goods are subjected during the various operations to more or less continual longitudinal tension, and while becoming elongated, shrink more or less considerably in width. In order to bring them back to their original width, they are stretched or "stentered" by means of specially constructed machines. The most effective of these is the so-called stentering frame, which consists essentially of two slightly diverging endless chains carrying clips or pins which hold the piece in position as it traverses the machine. The length of a frame may vary from 20 to 30 yds. On the upper part of the frame the chains run in slots, and by means of set screws the distance between the two chains can be set within the required limits. The pieces are fed on to one end of the machine in the damp state by hand and are then naturally slack. But before they have travelled many yards they become taut, the stretching increasing as they travel along. Simultaneously with the stretching, the pieces are dried by a current of hot air which is blown through from below, so that on arriving at the end of the machine they are not only stretched to the required degree but are also dry. The machine used for stentering is more fully described under MERCERIZING (q.v.). In case the goods come straight from the loom to be finished, stentering is not necessary.

Pieces intended to receive a "pure" finish pass on without further treatment to the ordinary finishing processes such as calendering, hot pressing, raising, &c. But in the majority of cases they are previously impregnated, according to the finish desired, with stiffening or softening agents, weighting materials, &c. Usually, starch constitutes the main stiffening agent, with additions of china clay, barium compounds, &c., for weighting purposes, and Turkey red oil, with or without the addition of some vegetable oil or fat, as the softening agent. Magnesium sulphate is also largely used in order to give "body" to the cloth, which it does by virtue of its property of crystallizing in fine felted needle-shaped crystals throughout the mass of the fabric. When starch is used in filling, it is advisable to add some anti-septic, such as zinc chloride, sodium silicofluoride, phenol or salicylic acid, in order to prevent or retard subsequent development of mildew. The impregnation of the pieces with the filling is effected in two ways, viz. either throughout the thickness of the cloth or on one surface only (back starching). When the whole piece is to be impregnated the operation is conducted in a starching mangle, which is similar in construction to an ordinary household mangle, though naturally larger and more elaborate in construction. The pieces run at full width through a trough situated immediately below the bowls and containing the filling (starch paste, &c.), then between the bowls, the pressure ("nip") of which regulates the amount of filling taken up, and thence over a range of steam-heated drying cylinders (see BLEACHING). In case one side only of the goods is to be stiffened--and this is usually necessary in the case of printed goods,--a so-called back-starching mangle is employed.

The construction of the machine varies, but the simplest form consists
essentially of a wooden bowl a (Fig. 1) which runs in the starch paste
contained in trough t. The pieces pass from the batch-roller B,
through scrimp rails S and over the bowl under tension, touching the
surface from which they gather the starch paste. By means of the fixed
"doctor" blade d, which extends across the piece, the paste is
levelled on the surface of the fabric and excess scraped off, falling
back into the trough. The goods are then dried with the face side to
the cylinders.

Some goods come into the market with no further treatment after starching other than running through a mangle with a little softening and then drying, but in the great majority of cases they are subjected to further operations.

_Damping._--When deprived of their natural moisture by drying on the cylinder drying machine, cotton goods are not in a fit condition to undergo the subsequent operations of calendering, beetling, &c., since the fibres in the dry state have lost their plasticity. The pieces are consequently damped to the desired degree, and this is usually effected in a damping machine in passing through which they meet with a fine spray of water.

A simple and effective device for this purpose is shown in section in
Fig. 2. It consists essentially of a brass roller r running in water
contained in a trough or box t. Touching the brass roller is a brush
roller b which revolves at a high speed, thus spraying the water,
which it takes up continuously from the wet revolving brass roller in
all directions, and consequently also against the piece which passes
in a stretched condition over the top of the box, being drawn from the
batch roller B, over scrimp rails S, and batched again on the other
side on roller R. The level of the water in the trough is kept
constant.

_Calendering._--The calender may be regarded as an elaboration of the ordinary mangle, from which, however, it differs essentially inasmuch as one or more of the rollers or bowls are made of steel or iron and can be treated either by gas or steam; the other bowls are made of compressed cotton or paper. Three distinct forms of calender are in use, viz. the ordinary calender, the friction calender and the embossing calender.

The number of bowls in an ordinary calender varies between two and six according to the character of the finish for which it is intended. In a modern five-bowl calender the bottom bowl is made of cast iron, the second of compressed cotton or paper, the third of iron being hollow and fitted with steam heating apparatus. The fourth bowl is made of compressed cotton, and the fifth of cast iron. The pieces are simply passed through for "swissing," i.e. for the production of an ordinary plain finish. The same calender may also be used for "chasing," in which two pieces are passed through, face to face, in order to produce an imitation linen finish. Moire or "watered" effects are produced in a similar way, but these effects are frequently imitated in the embossing calender.

The friction calender, the object of which is to produce a high gloss on the fabric, differs from the ordinary calender inasmuch as one of the bowls is caused to revolve at a greater speed than the others. In an ordinary three-bowl friction calender the bottom bowl is made of cast iron, the middle one of compressed cotton or paper, and the top one (the friction bowl) of highly polished chilled iron. The last-named bowl, which has a greater peripheral speed than the others, is hollow and can be heated either by steam or gas.

The embossing calender is usually constructed of two bowls, one of which is of steel and the other of compressed cotton or paper. The steel roller, which is hollow and can be heated either by steam or gas, is engraved with the pattern which it is desired to impart to the piece. If the pattern is deep, as is the case in the production of book cloths, it is necessary to run the machine empty under pressure until the pattern of the steel bowl has impressed itself into the cotton or paper bowls, but if the effect desired only consists of very fine lines, this is not necessary; for instance, in the production of the Schreiner finish, which is intended to give the pieces (especially after mercerizing) the appearance of silk, the steel roller is engraved with fine diagonal lines which are so close together (about 250 to the in.) as to be undistinguishable by the naked eye.

_Beetling_ is a process by which a peculiar linen-like appearance and a leathery feel or handle are imparted to cotton fabrics, the process being also employed for improving the appearance of linen goods. For the best class of beetle finish, the pieces are first impregnated with sago starch and the other necessary ingredients (softening, &c.) and are dried on cylinders. They are then damped on a water mangle, and beamed on to the heavy iron bowl of the beetling machine.

A beetling machine of the kind, with four sets of "fallers," is shown
in Fig. 3. The fallers are made of beech wood, are about 8 ft. long,
5-1/2 in. deep and 4 in. wide, and are kept in their vertical position
by two pairs of guide rails. Each faller is provided with a tappet or
wooden peg driven in at one side, which engages with the teeth or
"wipers" of the revolving shaft in the front of the machine. The
effect of this mechanism is to lift the faller a distance of about 13
in. and then let it drop on to the cloth wound on the beam. This
lifting and dropping of the fallers on to the beam takes place in
rhythmical and rapid succession. To ensure even treatment the beam
turns slowly round and also has a to-and-fro movement imparted to it.
The treatment may last, according to the finish which it is desired to
obtain, from one to sixty hours.

Beetling was originally used for linen goods, but to-day is almost entirely applied to cotton for the production of so-called _linenettes_.

_Hot-pressing_ is used to a limited extent in order to obtain a soft finish on cotton goods, but as this operation is more used for wool, it will be described below.

_Raising._--This operation, which was formerly only used for woollen goods (teasing), has come largely into use for cotton pieces, partly in consequence of the introduction of the direct cotton colours by which the cotton is dyed evenly throughout (see DYEING), and partly in consequence of new and improved machinery having been devised for the purpose. Starting with a plain bleached, dyed or printed fabric, the process consists in principle in raising or drawing out the ends of individual fibres from the body of the cloth, so as to produce a nap or soft woolly surface on the face.

This is effected by passing the fabric slowly round a large drum D,
which is surrounded, as shown in the diagram, (Fig. 4), by a number of
small cylinders or rollers, r, covered with steel wire brushes or
"carding," such as is used in carding engines (see COTTON-SPINNING
MACHINERY).

The rollers r, which are all driven by one and the same belt (not
shown in the figure), revolve at a high rate of speed, and can be made
to do so either in the same direction as that followed by the piece as
it travels through the machine or in the opposite one. In addition to
their revolving round their own axes, the raising rollers may be
either kept stationary or may be moved round the drum D in either
direction.

In the more modern machines there are two sets of raising rollers, of
which each alternate one is caused to revolve in the direction
followed by the piece, while the other is made to revolve in the
opposite direction. By passing through an arrangement of this kind
several times, or through several such machines in succession, the
ends of the fibres are gradually drawn out to the desired extent.

After raising, the pieces are sheared (for better class work) in order to produce greater regularity in the length of the nap. The raised style of finishing is used chiefly for the production of uniformly white or coloured flannelettes but is also used for such as are dyed in the yarn, and to a limited extent for printed fabrics.

_Woollen and Worsted Pieces._--Although both of these classes of material are made from wool, their treatment in finishing differs so materially that it is necessary to deal with them separately. _Unions_ or fabrics consisting of a cotton warp with a worsted weft are in general treated like worsteds.

In the finishing of woollen pieces the most important operation is that of _milling_, which consists in subjecting the pieces to mechanical friction, usually in an alkaline medium (soap or soap and soda) but sometimes in an acid (sulphuric acid) medium, in order to bring about felting and consequent "fulling" of the fabric. This felting of the wool is due to the peculiar structure of the fibre, the scales of which all protrude in one direction, so that the individual fibres can slip past each other in one direction more readily than in the opposite one and thus become more and more interlocked as the milling proceeds. If the pieces contain _burrs_ these are usually removed by a process known as "carbonizing," which generally, but not necessarily, precedes the milling. Their removal depends upon the fact that the burrs, which consist in the main of cellulose, are disintegrated at elevated temperatures by dilute mineral acids. The pieces are run through sulphuric acid of from 4 deg. to 6 deg. Tw., squeezed or hydro-extracted, and dried over cylinders and then in stoves. The acid is thus concentrated and attacks the burrs, which fall to dust, while leaving the wool intact. For the removal of the acid the fabric is first washed in water and then in weak soda. Carbonizing is also sometimes used for worsteds.

Milling was formerly all done in milling or fulling stocks (see Fig. 5), in which the cloth saturated with a strong solution of soap (with or without other additions such as stale urine, potash, fuller's earth, &c.) is subjected to the action of heavy wooden hammers, which are raised by the cams attached to the wheel (E) on the revolving shaft, and fall with their own weight on to the bundles of cloth. The shape of the hammer-head causes the cloth to turn slowly in the cavity in which the milling takes place. Occasionally, the cloth is taken out, straightened, washed if necessary, and then returned to the stocks to undergo further treatment, the process being continued until the material is uniformly shrunk or milled to the desired degree.

In the more modern forms of milling machines the principle adopted is to draw the pieces in rope form, saturated with soap solution and sewn together end to end so as to form an endless band, between two or more rollers, on leaving which they are forced down a closed trough ending in an aperture the size of which can be varied, but which in any case is sufficiently small to cause a certain amount of force to be necessary to push the pieces through. A machine of this kind is shown in Fig. 6. It is evident that for coloured goods which have to be milled only such colouring matters must be chosen for dyeing that are absolutely fast to soap.

FIG. 6.--Roller Milling Machine.]

After the pieces have been milled down to the desired degree, they present an uneven and, undesirable appearance on the surface, the ends of many of the fibres which previously projected having been turned and thus become embedded in the body of the cloth. In order to bring these hairs to the surface again, the fabric is subjected to _teasing_ or _raising_, an operation identical in principle with one which has already been noticed under the finishing of cotton. In place of the steel wire brushes it is the usual practice to employ teasels for the treatment of woollen goods.

The teasel (see Fig. 7) is the dried head (fruit) of a kind of thistle
(_Dipsacus fullorum_), the horny sharp spikes of which turn downwards
at their extremity, and, while possessing the necessary sharpness and
strength for raising the fibres, are not sufficiently rigid to cause
any material damage to the cloth. For raising, the teasels are fixed
in rows on a large revolving drum, and the piece to be treated is
drawn lengthways underneath the drum, being guided by rollers or rods
so as to just touch the teasels as they sweep past. In the raising of
woollen goods it is necessary that the pieces should be damp or moist
while undergoing this treatment.

After teasing, the pieces are stretched and dried. At this stage they still have an irregular appearance, for although the raising has brought all the loose ends of the fibres to the surface, these vary considerably in length and thus give rise to an uneven nap.

FIG. 7.--Teasel used for Raising.]

By the next operation of _shearing_ or _cropping_, the long hairs are cut off arid a uniform surface is thus obtained. Shearing was in former times done by hand, by means of shears, but is to-day universally effected by means of a cutting device which works on the same principle as an ordinary lawn-mower, in which a number of spiral blades set on the surface of a rapidly revolving roller pass continuously over a straight fixed blade underneath, the roller being set so that the spiral blades just touch the fixed blade. Before the piece comes to the shearing device the nap is raised by means of a rotary brush. Shearing may be effected either transversely, in which case the fixed blade is parallel to the warp, or longitudinally with the fixed blade parallel to the weft. In the first case, the piece being stretched on a table, over which the cutter, carried on rails, travels from selvedge to selvedge. The length of the piece that can be shorn in one operation will naturally depend upon the length of the blade, but in any case the process is necessarily intermittent, many operations being required before the whole piece is shorn. In the longitudinal shearing machines the process is continuous, the pieces passing from the beam in the stretched condition over the rotary brush, under the fixed blade, and then being again brushed before being beamed on the other side of the machine. Shearing once is generally insufficient, and for this reason many of the modern machines are constructed with duplicate arrangements so as to effect the shearing twice in the same operation. In the finishing of certain woollen goods the pieces, after having been milled, raised and sheared, go through these operations again in the same sequence.

After these operations the goods are pressed either in the hydraulic press or in the continuous press, and according to the character of the material and the finish desired may or may not be steamed under pressure, all of which operations are described below.

New cloth, as it comes into the hands of the tailor, frequently shows an undesirable gloss or sheen, which is removed before making up by a process known as shrinking, in which the material is simply damped or steamed.

_Worsteds and Unions._--The pieces are first singed by gas or hot plate (see BLEACHING), and are then usually subjected to a process known as "crabbing," the object of which is to "set" the wool fibres. If this operation is omitted, especially in the case of unions, the fabric will "cockle," or assume an uneven surface on being wetted. In crabbing the pieces are drawn at full breadth and under as much tension as they will stand through boiling water, and are wound or beamed on to a roller under the pressure of a superposed heavy iron roller, the operation being conducted two or three times as required. From the crabbing machine the pieces are wound on to a perforated shell or steel cylinder which is closed at one end. The open end is then attached to a steam pipe, and steam, at a pressure of 30 to 45 lb., is allowed to enter until it makes its way through all the layers of cloth to the outside, when the steam is turned off and the whole allowed to cool. Since those layers of the cloth which are nearest the shell are acted upon for a longer period than those at the outside, it is necessary to re-wind and repeat the operation, the outside portions coming this time nearest to the shell. The principle of the process depends upon the fact that at elevated temperatures moist wool becomes plastic, and then easily assumes the shape imparted to it by the great tension under which the pieces are wound. On cooling the shape is retained, and since the temperature at which the pieces were steamed under tension exceeds any to which they are submitted in the subsequent processes, the "setting" of the fibres is permanent. After crabbing, the pieces are washed or "scoured" in soap either on the winch or at full width. In some cases the crabbing precedes the scouring. The goods are then dyed and finished.

The nature of the finishing process will vary considerably according to the special character of the goods under treatment. Thus, for certain classes of goods cold pressing is sufficient, while in other cases the pieces are steamed under pressure in a manner analogous to the treatment after crabbing ("decatizing"). The treatment in most common use for worsteds and unions is hot pressing, which may be effected either in the hydraulic press or in the continuous press, but in most cases in the former.

In pressing in the hydraulic press the pieces are folded down by hand on a table, a piece of press paper (thin hand-made cardboard with a glossed and extremely hard surface) being inserted between each lap. After a certain number of laps, a steel or iron press plate is inserted, and the folding proceeds in this way until the pile is sufficiently high, when it is placed in the press. The press being filled, the hydraulic ram is set in motion until the reading on the gauge shows that the desired amount of pressure has been obtained. The heating of the press plates was formerly done in ovens, previous to their insertion in the piece, but although this practice is still in vogue in rare instances, the heating is now effected either by means of steam which is caused to circulate through the hollow steel plates, or in the more modern forms of presses by means of an electric current. After the pieces have thus been subjected to the combined effects of heat and pressure for the desired length of time, they are allowed to cool in the press. It is evident that portions of the pieces, viz. the folds, thus escape the finishing process, and for this reason it is necessary to repeat the process, the folds now being made to lie in the middle of the press papers.

FIG. 8.--Continuous Press.]

The continuous press, which is used for certain classes of worsteds,
but more especially for woollen goods, consists in principle of a
polished steam-heated steel cylinder against which either one or two
steam-heated chilled iron cheeks are set by means of levers and
adjusting screws. The pieces to be pressed are drawn slowly between
the cheeks and the bowl. A machine of the kind is shown in section in
Fig. 8. In working, the cheeks C, C_1 are pressed against the bowl B.
The course followed by the cloth to be finished is shown by the dotted
line, the finished material being mechanically folded down on the
left-hand side of the machine. The pieces thus acquire a certain
amount of finish which is, however, not comparable with that produced
in the hydraulic press.

_Pile Fabrics_, such as velvets, velveteens, corduroys, plushes, sealskins, &c., require a special treatment in finishing, and great care must be taken in all operations to prevent the pile being crushed or otherwise damaged. Velveteens and corduroys are singed before boiling or bleaching. Velveteens dyed in black or in dark shades are brushed with an oil colour (e.g. Prussian blue for blacks), and dried over-night in a hot stove in order to give them a characteristic bloom. Regularity in the pile and gloss are obtained by shearing and brushing. Corduroys are stiffened at the back by the application of "bone-size" (practically an impure form of glue) in a machine similar to that used for back-starching. The face of the fabric is waxed with beeswax by passing the piece under a revolving drum, on the surface of which bars of this material are fixed parallel to the axis. The bars just touch the surface of the fabric as it passes through the machine. The gloss is then obtained by brushing with circular brushes which run partly in the direction of the piece and partly diagonally. In the finishing of velvets, shearing and brushing are the most important operations. The same applies to sealskins and other long pile fabrics, but with these an additional operation, viz. that of "batting," is employed after dyeing and before shearing and brushing, which consists in beating the back of the stretched fabric with sticks in order to shake out the pile and cause it to stand erect.

For the finishing of silk pieces the operations and machinery employed are similar in character to some of those used for cotton and worsteds. Most high-class silks require no further treatment other than simple damping and pressing after they leave the loom. Inferior qualities are frequently filled or back-filled with glue, sugar, gum tragacanth, dextrin, &c., after which they are dried, damped and given a light calender finish. Moire or watered effects are produced by running two pieces face to face through a calender or by means of an embossing calender. In the latter case the pattern repeats itself. For the production of silk crape the dyed (generally black) piece is impregnated with a solution of shellac in methylated spirit and dried. It is then "goffered," an operation which is practically identical with embossing (see above), and may either be done on an embossing calender or by means of heated brass plates in which the design is engraved to the desired depth and pattern.

The measuring, wrapping, doubling, folding, &c., of piece goods previous to making up are done in the works by specially constructed machinery.

_Finishing of Yarn._--The finishing of yarn is not nearly so important as the finishing of textiles in the piece, and it will suffice to draw attention to the main operations. Cotton yarns are frequently "gassed," i.e. drawn through a gas flame, in order to burn or singe off the projecting fibres and thus to produce a clean thread which is required for the manufacture of certain classes of fabrics. The most important finishing process for cotton yarn is "mercerizing" (q.v.), by means of which a permanent silk-like gloss is obtained. The "polishing" of cotton yarn, by means of which a highly glazed product, similar in appearance to horsehair, is obtained, is effected by impregnating the yarn with a paste consisting essentially of starch, beeswax or paraffin wax and soap, and then subjecting the damp material to the action of revolving brushes until dry. Woollen yarn is not subjected to any treatment, but worsted yarns (especially twofold) have to be "set" before scouring and dyeing in order to prevent curling. This is effected by stretching the yarn tight on a frame, which is immersed in boiling water and then allowing it to cool in this condition.

A peculiar silk-like gloss and feel is sometimes imparted to yarns made from lustre wool by a treatment with a weak solution of chlorine (bleaching powder and hydrochloric acid) followed by a treatment with soap.

Worsted and mohair yarns intended for the manufacture of braids are singed by gas, a process technically known as "Genapping."

Silk yarn is subjected to various mechanical processes before weaving. The most important of these are stretching, shaking, lustreing and glossing. Stretching and shaking are simple operations the nature of which is sufficiently indicated by their names, and by these means the hanks are stretched to their original length and straightened out by hand or on a specially devised machine. In _lustreing_, the yarn is stretched slightly beyond its original length between two polished revolving cylinders (one of which is steam heated) contained in a box or chest into which steam is admitted. In _glossing_, the yarn is twisted tight, first in one direction and then in the other, on a machine, this alternating action being continued until the maximum gloss is obtained.

The so-called "scrooping" process, which gives to silk a peculiar feel and causes it to crackle or crunch when compressed by the hand, is a very simple operation, and consists in treating the yarn after dyeing in a bath of dilute acid (acetic, tartaric or sulphuric) and then drying without washing. Heavily weighted black silks are passed after dyeing through an emulsion of olive oil in soap and dried without washing, in order to give additional lustre to the material or rather to restore some of the lustre which has been lost in weighting. (E. K.)

FINISTERE, or FINISTERRE, the most western department of France, formed from part of the old province of Brittany. Pop. (1906) 795,103. Area, 2713 sq. m. It is bounded W. and S. by the Atlantic Ocean, E. by the departments of Cotes-du-Nord and Morbihan, and N. by the English Channel. Two converging chains of hills run from the west towards the east of the department and divide it into three zones conveying the waters in three different directions. North of the Arree, or more northern of the two chains, the waters of the Douron, Penze and Fleche flow northward to the sea. The Elorn, however, after a short northerly course, turns westward and empties into the Brest roads. South of the Montagnes Noires, the Odet, Aven, Isole and Elle flow southward; while the waters of the Aulne, flowing through a region enclosed by the two chains with a westward declination, discharge into the Brest roads. The rivers are all small, and none of the hills attain a height of 1300 ft. The coast is generally steep and rocky and at some points dangerous, notably off Cape Raz and the Ile de Sein; it is indented with numerous bays and inlets, the chief of which--the roadstead of Brest and the Bays of Douarnenez and Audierne--are on the west. The principal harbours are those of Brest, Concarneau, Morlaix, Landerneau, Quimper and Douarnenez. Off the coast lie a number of islands and rocks, the principal of which are Ushant (q.v.) N.W. of Cape St Mathieu, and Batz off Roscoff. The climate is temperate and equable, but humid; the prevailing winds are the W., S.W. and N.W. Though more than a third of the department is covered by heath, waste land and forest, it produces oats, wheat, buckwheat, rye and barley in quantities more than sufficient for its population. In the extreme north the neighbourhood of Roscoff, and farther south the borders of the Brest roadstead, are extremely fertile and yield large quantities of asparagus, artichokes and onions, besides melons and other fruits. The cider apple is abundant and furnishes the chief drink of the inhabitants. Hemp and flax are also grown. The farm and dairy produce is plentiful, and great attention is paid to the breeding and feeding of cattle and horses. The production of honey and wax is considerable. The fisheries of the coast, particularly the pilchard fishery, employ a great many hands and render this department an excellent nursery of seamen for the French navy. Coal, though found in Finistere, is not mined; there are quarries of granite, slate, potter's clay, &c. The lead mines of Poullaouen and Huelgoat, which for several centuries yielded a considerable quantity of silver, are no longer worked. The preparation of sardines is carried on on a large scale at several of the coast-towns. The manufactures include linens, woollens, sail-cloth, ropes, agricultural implements, paper, leather, earthenware, soda, soap, candles, and fertilizers and chemicals derived from seaweed. Brest has important foundries and engineering works; and shipbuilding is carried on there and at other seaports. Brest and Morlaix are the most important commercial ports. Trade is in fish, vegetables and fruit. Coal is the chief import. The department is served by the Orleans and Western railways. The canal from Nantes to Brest has 51 m. of its length in the department. The Aulne is navigable for 17 m., and many of the smaller rivers for short distances.

Finistere is divided into the arrondissements of Quimperle, Brest, Chateaulin, Morlaix and Quimper (43 cantons, 294 communes), the town of Quimper being the capital of the department and the seat of a bishopric. The department belongs to the region of the XI. army corps and to the archiepiscopal province and academie (educational division) of Rennes, where its court of appeal is also situated.