Chapter VII: Part 7

The trade of the Dyer may be placed amongst the most ancient of the arts, and the tools that are used in it are so few that they need scarcely any description, since almost all the apparatus required are the various coppers, vats, and other vessels used for boiling the fabrics to be dyed, and immersing them completely in the liquors which have been prepared from the dye stuffs, the proper use of which is the principal secret in the business. With regard to the scouring or cleaning of fabrics, whether made into garments or not, the operation consists in applying detergents, or substances like soap and turpentine, for removing grease and dirt, or other liquids which have a detergent property but will not injure the colours; the use of these, with a _sponge_ and a _hard brush_, is nearly all that is required; the garment sent to be cleaned being stretched on a _frame_ and dried, either in the dyer’s _drying room_, or in some open situation, where they are least likely to be soiled or spotted.

The art of dyeing was practised to a very great extent by the ancient Egyptians, Phœnicians, Greeks, and Romans; and the island of Tyre was, in very early times, celebrated for a purple dye which was, perhaps from its costliness, used for colouring the robes of kings and emperors, from which practice purple became the imperial colour.

The art of modern dyeing very greatly consists in the proper use of what are called mordants, that is, substances which, although they do not of themselves produce colour, so act upon the dyes as to cause them to give an intenser hue to the fabric, and also serve to make the colour permanent. The modern dyers have obtained several dye drugs unknown to the ancients, such as cochineal, quercitron, Brazil and logwood, arnotts, and indigo, which was only known to the Romans as a paint; but the vast superiority of our dyes must be principally ascribed to the employment of alum and solution of tin mixed with other substances as mordants, which give depth, durability, and lustre to the colours. Another improvement in dyeing is the application of metallic compounds, such as Prussian blue, chrome yellow, and manganese brown, to textile or woven fabrics.

Our readers will see from what has been said of mordants how what are called fast colours are obtained, fast colours meaning colours which will not be affected even by the liquor of the dye bath. Another very necessary subject of information in relation to dyeing is the fact that different substances, such as silk and wool, will not be equally affected by the dye in which they are placed, since the particles contained in the composition of these substances have different degrees of what is called affinity, that is, they combine in a greater or less degree with the component matter of the dye stuff.

We have already said something of the preparation of cotton. The operations to which silk and wool are subjected before being dyed are intended to separate superfluous substances from the animal fibre, and to make that fibre more easily unite with the colouring particles.

Silk is scoured by means of being boiled in water and soap, whereby the animal varnish is removed from the surface; if intended to be very white, it is bleached by humid sulphurous acid. Wool is first washed in running water to separate its coarse impurities, and is then freed from the greasy animal matter secreted from the skin of the sheep by means of ammoniacal liquor, soap and water, or a solution of soda. It is finally bleached by the fumes of burning sulphur, or by aqueous sulphuric acid.

What are called tinctorial colours, as distinguished from mordants, are either simple or compound. The simple are black, brown or dun, blue, yellow, and red; the compounds are grey, purple, green, orange, and others.

Gall nuts, pyrolignite of iron, logwood, copperas, and verdigris, are the chief materials for producing black. Walnuts, sumach, madder, cochineal, cudbear, acetate of iron, catechu, Brazil wood, arnotts, are all employed in producing brown. Indigo, Prussian blue, and woad for blue. Fustic, Persian berries, quercitron, turmeric, and weld for yellow. Cudbear, Brazil wood, cochineal, kermes, lac, logwood, madder, safflower, for red; and various compounds for purple, green, orange, &c.

The dye materials imported from foreign countries are principally cochineal, fustic, gum arabic, gum senegal, gum animi, gum copal, gum tragacanth, indigo, lac dye, shellac, logwood, madder, smalts, valonia, yellow berries, and zaffre. The tools shown in the engravings explain themselves, and, as has been already said, principally consist of the various coppers and vats, the _syphons_ or tubes by which liquor will flow from one vessel to another, and the _puncheons_, for stirring and thoroughly immersing the articles in the dye stuff.

THE COPPERSMITH.

The very great variety of purposes for which the metal called copper is used, renders it one of the most valuable productions of this country, and several very important manufactures would be incomplete without it, since it is the principal material of which many large vessels are formed, and is also largely employed as an alloy for other metals. Although the metal is sometimes found in a pure or native state, its most abundant ore is that known as copper pyrites, of which there are many kinds. The most common yellow copper ore is a very abundant mineral, found in large quantities in Cornwall, Devon, and the Isle of Anglesea, and is a compound of about equal parts of copper, iron, and sulphur. The mines of Devon and Cornwall yield more than three-fourths of the copper obtained in England, or about 190,000 tons of ore in a year, the value of which is above a million sterling. The amount of copper annually obtained in the United Kingdom is about 15,000 tons, worth more than a million and a half of money. About the same quantity is imported into this country from Chili and Cuba, and a very valuable copper ore is also found at the Burra Burra mines in Australia.

The copper ores of Cornwall and other parts of the country are generally shipped to Swansea, where coal is abundant, in order to be separated from the metal. For this purpose the ore is heated to redness, or roasted in an open furnace, in order to burn away the sulphur, and the fumes given out by this process are most pernicious. The ore is afterwards melted several times to separate the other impurities, which, when fused, float like scum on the surface of the liquid metal, and are then easily removed.

Copper has a peculiar reddish colour, and will bear a brilliant polish; its smell and taste are both disagreeable. It is one of the most malleable of metals, and can be so readily worked by the hammer that it is beaten out into thin leaves, which, under the name of “Dutch metal,” are employed in ornamenting toys, &c. in imitation of gilding.

It is also so ductile that it can be drawn out into finer wires than any ordinary metal, except gold, silver, and iron, and its tenacity is so great that a wire one-tenth of an inch in diameter will bear a weight of 175 lbs. This wire is very flexible, and not very elastic, but when rolled into sheets copper is one of the most elastic, and when struck one of the most vibratory and loud sounding metals.

If taken into the animal system all preparations of copper are violent poisons; and, as this metal is directly acted upon by vinegar and other acids, it should not be employed for making vessels used in cooking or preparing food.

The easy malleability of copper allows it to be rolled into thin sheets, which can easily be hammered into any form that may be desired, and it is this operation which belongs to the trade of the Coppersmith.

Sheet copper is employed in covering the bottoms of ships, to protect them from the attacks of marine animals; it is also used for coins, which are punched out of the sheet of metal and stamped with dies, and for plates on which pictures are engraved; the metal being soft enough to yield to the tool of the engraver, but yet sufficiently hard to resist the pressure necessary to print the picture.

As an ingredient in alloys copper is most valuable, especially in bell metal, which is composed of three parts of copper and one part of tin; in bronze, which is nine-tenths copper and one-tenth tin; and in German silver, argentine, nickel silver, and other alloys used for making forks, spoons, dishes, &c. which are composed of copper, zinc, and nickel. These are very beautiful alloys, closely resembling silver; but the copper they contain is liable to be partially dissolved by any long exposure to the action of acids.

Copper is used in small quantities as an alloy for gold and silver both in coinage and in plate, to give the requisite degree of hardness. Gold used for coins, or what is called standard gold, is formed of eleven parts of pure gold and one part of copper. Being a better conductor of electricity than any other metal, it is largely employed in the formation of telegraphic wires; and, as it is not hard enough to strike fire with flint or grit, it is used in gunpowder mills and magazines instead of iron.

The processes of casting and rolling copper into sheets are so much like those already described in the manufacture of iron that they need not be repeated, but the trade of the Coppersmith is distinct from those of the workers in other metals, though they mostly consist in forming the sheet copper into various shapes and utensils by means of _hammers_, of which the _smoothing hammer_, the _set hammer_, and the _riveting hammer_, explain their own uses by their names.

In manufacturing the large vessels with circular bottoms which are so frequently made of copper, the metal is first cast in a shape resembling a round spectacle glass, that is to say, a flat cake, thick in the middle and gradually diminishing in thickness towards the edge. It is then subjected to the powerful blows of a tilt hammer, the beating being principally confined to the centre. The effect of this is not only to reduce the thickness of the copper, but to cause the disc to turn up at the edges and assume the form of a hollow dish.

Another operation of the Coppersmith is called _planishing_, or hammering the metal until it becomes more dense, firm, and tough; any one who looks at the surface of a large copper vessel will see the marks of the hammer by which it has been planished.

It is by the combined operation of casting, rolling, hammering, and planishing, as well as by the processes of fastening, either with _rivets_ or with _solder_, that nearly all copper articles are made.

Of the tools used by the Coppersmith, beside those already mentioned, the principal are _punches_ for cutting or piercing holes, _shears_ for cutting the sheets of metal, the _spanner_ for turning heads of screws or nuts, the _anvil_, the _blocks_ and _horses_ for receiving the work in such a position as to operate on any part where the hammer or the punch is required, and the _iron_ for soldering. There are five different modes of forming copper piping out of sheet metal; in the first the edges of the sheet, which is curved round a mandril, are made to meet without overlapping, and are joined with hard solder; in the second they overlap and are united by soft solder; in the third they overlap and are secured by rivets; in the fourth the edges are folded one over the other, and are made close and firm by hammering; and in the fifth both edges of the pipe are turned back and covered with a strip of sheet metal, the two edges of which are turned in and hammered down.

THE GUN MANUFACTURER.

By guns, only muskets, rifles, and fowling-pieces are here meant, since the manufacture of cannons, to which the term guns is now commonly applied, is an entirely different business to that of making what are called “small arms;” the latter including, in fact, swords, pistols, bayonets, muskets, rifles, and some other implements of war. There are so many varieties of fire arms, and they are sold at prices varying so greatly, that it would be almost impossible to give any detailed description of each kind of piece. The finely-finished rifle or sporting gun, fitted with the last improvements, breech-loading or otherwise, and finished with marvellous perfection and accuracy, is worth four times as many pounds as the common muskets, made for exportation to Africa for the use of the natives, are worth shillings. We may, therefore, describe some of the ordinary processes of the gunmaker’s trade, and the various improvements will then be better understood when the reader has an opportunity of seeing finished guns, in which such improvements may be pointed out to him.

The barrels of guns are either plain or twisted; twisted barrels are made of long and very narrow strips of iron, one of which, being moderately heated to increase pliancy, is wrapped spirally round a cylindrical mandril in such a way as to form a tube, which may be slipped off the mandril at pleasure. As the rods are not usually made of sufficient length for one to form a barrel, several are usually joined end to end, those which form the breech being thicker than those at the muzzle end. By heating and hammering these pieces are welded into a continuous and very strong and tough tube.

Partially worn iron, called “scrap iron,” is best for these purposes. The twisted barrels which are known as “wire twist” are formed of narrow rods of iron and steel forged together, and then rolled out to the proper thinness.

Damascus barrels are composed of similar metal, but the rods are twisted on their own centres until the fibres which they contain have from twelve to fourteen turns in an inch by which the rods are doubled in thickness and proportionately reduced in length. Two such rods are welded together side by side, their respective twists being reversed. There are many modes of making twisted barrels, but these are the most common.

After being welded, the barrels are carefully examined, and, if needful, straightened by a few blows of the hammer. They are then bored in a machine with an angular plug of tempered steel, which is caused to revolve rapidly within the barrel, while a stream of water is directed upon the outside to check the heat caused by the tremendous friction. The outside is brought to a smooth surface either by grinding on a large grindstone, or turning in a lathe. The breech end of the barrel is bored with a screw-thread, to receive the breech plug, which closes it at that end.

The barrels are then proved by being fired at the _proof-house_, a large building where they are loaded with a charge five times as great as they will have to bear when in use. A great number of barrels are fired at once by laying them upon a strong framework of wood with their touch-holes downwards, and connected with a train of gunpowder which is ignited outside the building. A heap of sand is piled inside the building, opposite the muzzles of the barrels to receive the bullets. Those which bear this test without injury are marked as perfect.

Guns used in field sports are often made with two barrels fixed side by side upon one stock. The barrels are made separately, and each with one flat side, that they may lie close together. They are secured together by ribs running between them from end to end.

The wooden stock upon which the barrel is fixed is generally made of walnut-tree wood. It is first shaped, and afterwards shod with brass or steel; the trigger guard and other fittings are let into the wood, and every part is furnished with the proper screws and fastenings.

With regard to the manufacture of rifles and other small arms in general, the author of the present work some time ago wrote a description of a visit to the factory at Birmingham known as the Toledo Works, and it may be useful to give an extract from that account of what he saw there.

The steel from which the swords are made is supplied in long pieces somewhat tapering at the ends, and having a square portion in the middle, which, being cut through, leaves material for two blades, the bisection of the square leaving a shoulder at one end to receive the iron “tang” by which the blade is afterwards fixed into the handle. The manufacture of these blades is almost entirely effected by the forgers, who hammer them into the required shape upon the anvil, a mould running down the centre of which secures the hollow which in swords extends for about two-thirds of the length from hilt to point. In a little street of smithies the musical clink is being sounded by a score of stalwart arms, either forging the rough steel into form, or hammering the formed blade into perfect shape and symmetry, an operation which requires it to be kept at a certain heat, lest the embryo blade should be injured in the process. Once perfected as to proportion, the hardening commences, and the blade is thrust backwards and forwards into the furnace until it has acquired a proper and uniform heat, at which point it is removed and instantly plunged into cold water. This process, which has obviously suggested the Turkish bath, renders it hard indeed, but at the same time so extremely brittle that we whisperingly suggest the propriety of contracting to supply our enemies with weapons, and neglecting to carry them beyond that particular stage of preparation, when they may be snapped with the fingers. Carefully supported, however, the blade is again subjected to the fiery ordeal until it attains a slaty blue colour, and a beautiful and elastic temper, which has been partially secured by the previous hammering. By the process of forging it has become about six inches longer than the pristine steel shape, and by the tempering it has attained a springy strength which enables it to be bent in a curve sufficient to bring the hand five inches nearer to the point than when the blade is straight.

Many of the best bayonets are forged in the same way as the sword-blades, and, as in almost every manufacturing process, human intelligence has an unmistakable advantage over mere mechanical force, these possess some superior qualities. The greater number of bayonets, however, are made from a square bar of drawn steel, five inches and a half long by nine-sixteenths square. This bar is passed between a series of about sixteen pairs of rollers, which are worked by steam power, and so grooved as gradually to mould the blade to the required shape. Sixteen times the short steel bar undergoes the merciless pressure of a progressively-increased power, until its length is increased from five and a half to twenty-six inches, when some portion is cut off from the point to leave it the regulation length.

The matchets, which are made from bevel-edged steel, passed twice through the rollers, are cut into the requisite shape by means of powerful shears.

These operations are conducted in a large shed, where the rollers stand like awful combinations of infernal machines and patent mangles; where a boding and vengeful tilt-hammer, worked by steam, is tended by a man, who sits like a calm fate beside its crushing bulk, and supplies it with fresh victims; where the awful boom seems to shatter the very atmosphere, and deafness reigns triumphant. In obedience to a signal, however, the monster is suddenly stopped, and we are enabled to hear that the great two-pot furnace on our left is used for making the steel from those long laths of bevel-edged iron stacked against the wall; that the furnace is constructed with wide flues on each side and under the bottom, while the fire-grate occupies the centre between the two pots; that the pots themselves are some four feet deep, and two feet and a half wide, are airtight, contain layers of charcoal and iron covered with loam sand, will remain seven days and nights in the furnace, until their contents are white hot, and that at the end of that time the iron will have been converted into steel of a slaty-blue colour. The inexorable hammer resuming its work at this point, we follow the bayonet to its completion, and once more visit the forges, to witness the “shutting on” or welding the blade to a piece of iron, which ultimately forms the socket by which the bayonet itself is fixed on to the barrel of the rifle or musket.

There is yet another operation before the blades are taken to the finishing shop, one of the most important, too, since it is no other than grinding, a process which secures an exact and uniform thickness and increases their elasticity.

We are standing at the open end of a long, vast, and gloomy shed-like building, supported by iron pillars. On each side through the entire length a series of enormous grindstones spin round amidst sand and water, and the mud from both. Seated astride the bodies of wooden horses, whose heads seem to have been transformed into these wheels, the grinders seize upon the blades, and each fearless rider rising in his stirrups, or, what looks much the same, standing tiptoe till he no longer touches his saddle, throws himself forward, and presses the sword, matchet, or bayonet on the wheel, at the same time guiding it deftly with its left hand, till its whole surface has been smoothly ground.

Along the whole line of whirling stones fly the lurid red sparks, and the grinders, with squared elbows, seem to curb the struggling and impetuous wheels.

After polishing, which is completed by wooden wheels bearing a coating of leather covered with emery, the swords and matchets go to receive handles, and the bayonets locking rings. The handles of swords are made of walnut-wood covered with the skin of the dogfish, while the hilt and guard are formed from a plain flat sheet of steel, in shape not unlike one side of a pair of bellows.

The solid socket of the bayonet is hammered into form, and afterwards stamped into shape with the rim complete, from which process it is conveyed to a shop where it is drilled by steam power. It then only remains to secure a smooth surface, by means of a revolving barrel, containing an instrument with a number of flanged blades, against which the socket of the bayonet is pressed. It is not a little remarkable to see the solid steel pared and shaved like wax, and no less wonderful to notice the simple machinery by which it is accomplished. The locking rings are stamped out by a lever and die, pierced by a punch, and afterwards “bored,” “faced,” and their shapes secured by a triple circular saw, worked by a lathe.

The most important manufacture in the Toledo Works, however, is assuredly rifles, and, with the intention of following it through its principal processes, we return to the vicinity of the still inveterate hammer, where we are shown a rudimentary barrel in the shape of a slab of best wrought iron, twelve inches long, and weighing nine pounds and a quarter. This uninviting slab is heated in a furnace, and roughly bent into the tubular shape by means of our enemy the tilt-hammer, after which it is once more placed in a furnace of an enormously high temperature, with a small trap-opening. When sufficiently heated, the short rudimentary tube is taken out on a long round iron rod, fitted with a hand-guard, and looking like a huge burlesque rapier. This rod approximates to the size of the intended bore of the barrel, and is inserted, with the rough tube upon it, between two steam rollers, each of which is furnished with a series of corresponding grooves or cuts. The barrel, which is taken up at one end by a rod, is placed between the first pair of grooves, and, as the rollers revolve, is drawn out at the other side, a long, hollow, welded tube. This much more graceful and better formed tube is then consigned to another rod of smaller diameter, and to a corresponding pair of grooves; until, after the eighth repetition of the same process, the barrel has attained its proper dimensions. The next operation, which is called “lumping,” consists of welding a piece of wrought iron on to the breech end of the barrel, for the purpose of forming the percussion-lump, and is succeeded by “rough-boring.” This is accomplished by a long, sharp-ended bit, which, being placed in the end of the barrel, revolves at the rate of, perhaps, a thousand turns a minute by means of a pulley and fly-wheel, while the barrel is pushed on by a lever, and kept cool by means of water thrown upon its surface.

The “setting” of the barrel is next effected by means of hammer and anvil, the setting meaning simply rectifying any bend which it may have received during the previous operation. We are not a little interested in the setting, since the first intimation of it on entering the shop is the sudden discovery of a number of workmen gazing resolutely at an opposite window, through what look like attenuated telescopes. They are engaged, however, in one of the processes which require the greatest experience, as each of them is expected to detect the most trifling bias in the barrel. The “spilling-up,” or cutting the inside of the barrel to the proper bore, is similar to the rough-boring, except that only one edge of the bit is allowed to operate, the others being sheathed by a half cylinder of wood, called a _spill_; this ensures a smooth surface, and prepares for the “fine-boring,” which is six times repeated, the final surface being insured by keeping one edge of the bit perfectly smooth, by which means the particles of steel drop in a fine and almost soft powder.

The outside of the barrel is next turned in a long lathe, which not only reduces the roughness, but, by a beautiful arrangement of cutting tools, gives it the required substance or “pattern,” for a light or heavy rifle.

The grinding of the barrels is effected by means of stones, larger than those used for the sword blades, but in a similar manner, and is preliminary to “filing,” which carries the barrel to the shop, where it is prepared for the lock.

These preparations consist of “chambering,” or making the chamber which holds the pin; “breeching,” or cutting the worm intended for the breech-pin, that helps to hold the barrel to the stock by means of a breech-nail; cutting out the little slice into which the “sight” is to be dovetailed; machining the lump; filing the tail-pin, and making the square lump the proper shape for receiving the lock and stock.

We are not a little surprised to learn that every part of the lock is finished by hand, the cock being cut with a die worked by a heavy weight, and the smaller pieces being wrought with forge, hammer, and file.

The great art in lock-making is to obtain a perfect spring, and those properly tempered are so elastic that, although when fitted in the lock, the two sides are so close as almost to touch, they will, when released, spread to two inches below the edge of the lock-plate. The lock and barrel are now ready for the stock, which awaits them in another shop, where it has been sawn out of walnut wood, and finished by carpenters’ tools. The barrel let into its groove, and the lock properly in its place, the stock is more perfectly shaped and rounded before “screwing together,” or the addition of the different parts of the “furniture,” heel-plate, trigger-plate and guard, trigger, nose-cap, rod, and bayonet.

We are now told that the rifle is “finished,” by which, understanding _completion_, we are not quite prepared to learn that it is to be taken to pieces.

We suddenly remember, however, that it is not yet a rifle at all, inasmuch as it has not been rifled. Everything is made perfect before this delicate operation is attempted, in order that no injury may be sustained by the barrel when the complete rifle is again put together. The process of rifling is similar to that of boring, except that a spiral cutter is substituted for the bit. Previous to the reunion of the barrel, the whole work is polished, and the stock stained and finished ready for completion.

The pistol barrels undergo the same processes as that of the rifle, except that, after being drilled, they are planed, by machines which carry them along a sort of bed under tools that cut them perfectly smooth, and accurately shape the octagonal barrels. These chisels move by means of screws over the entire surface as it is drawn backwards and forwards on the slide.

The revolver chambers are drilled out of solid iron, by a drilling machine or lathe, with a centrebit and an eccentric motion, which causes each barrel of the chamber-nest to become the centre in succession; while, by means of a slide, the motion can be made to suit either a large or small chamber. The recesses communicating with the lock and trigger are cut by reversing the chamber in the eccentric “chuck,” and using a different cutting-tool, while another alteration effects the drilling of the nipple holes.

THE END

R. CLAY, SON, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, BREAD STREET