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upwards of 2,000,000 chairs are made in the town annually. The 
method of working up the timber in the woods strikes one as being 
more wasteful than methods which obtain in factories ; for, in the 
former case, not only does loss occur in spliting in place of sawing, 
but also the workers are unable to use up any timber which is 
inclined to be rough and which, on the other hand, might be con- 
verted into small articles of one description or another in a factory. 
The question of turning the waste material into acetone has 
been considered, but owing to the lack of a large and constant 
supply and the low price offered, it would not be likely to prove 
a financial success. 
As the town of High Wycombe is famous for its chairs, so 
Chesham is renowned for its brushes. The town contains a num 
of factories which expend the whole or the greater part of their 
energy on the manufacture of brushes. Though beech is not the 
only wood used in the brush-making trade, it is the most important, 
for no other wood has been found to answer so well for the blocks 
into which the hair or fibre is secured. These blocks have, of 
necessity, to be pierced by a large number of holes and very few 
woods are found which will stand the boring and subsequent wiring 
of the bunches of hair or fibre into position, so well as the beech. 
For large bass brooms and a few other kinds of similar construction, 
where the holes are comparatively few in number and the blocks 
thick, preference is given to birch on the question of lightness, but 
or all the smaller and denser kinds of brushes such as scrubbing 
These backs are sometimes attached directly to the block with its 
filling of hairs or fibre and wire, or there may be a thin veneer 
between the two, The kind of wood used for the backs differs in 
the various kinds of brushes. For scrubbing brushes, horse chest- 
nut is most in favour on account of its whiteness, and makers state 
that brushes backed with this kind of wood find a more ready sale 
than those backed with woods which are less clean looking. 
used. 
Some idea of the importance of the brush business to Chesham 
may be gathered from the fact that one factory alone, which is 
engaged solely in the manufacture of brushes, finds regular employ- 
ment for upwards of 150 men and women. By the kindness of 
Messrs. R. Webb and Sons I was enabled to see the whole process 
of up-to-date brush manufacture, and I am indebted to them for 
much information on the uses of beech and other timber. 
Important as the brush-making industry is in the town, Chesham 
woodworkers find many other outlets for their talents, for there are 
numerous factories which manufacture a great variety of articles. 
Thus, in one factory visited, the owner had gained a reputation for 
malt shovels or barn shovels as they are variously called. These 
large, wide-mouthed shovels are shaped out of single pieces of wood. 
