DAMASK 7 



some of the various kinds of steel these figures appear after burnishing, whilst in 

 others dilute acid is necessary to bring them out. 



" The mere appearance of this damascene does not confer upon the steel the title of 

 damask. On ordinary steel, similar figures may be brought out by subjecting it to corro- 

 sion, after having designed on it the figures required. This is called false damask.' 



A second kind of damask, called artificial damask, is peculiar to the metal itself, 

 so that however often it is repolished the same figures will reappear whenever it is 

 subject to corrosion. It is composed of several sorts of steel, interlaced with iron. 

 The beauty of such damask consists partly in the quantity of the several materials, 

 and partly in the skill with which they are worked together. These artificial 

 damasks are chiefly wrought in Asia, viz. in India, Turkey, and Georgia, whilst 

 those of Europe have as yet obtained no great reputation, because the European 

 workmen are more intent on producing elegant figures on the steel than on improving 

 the steel itself. 



The Orientals judge of the goodness of the damask in the following manner : The 

 first and most essential sign of the beauty of the damask or water is its being thick, 

 defined, and fantastic. They further give us three rules whereby the quality of the 

 damask may be judged : 



1. By the form of the damask, which may be either in points, right lines, or curved, 

 the right lines being the lowest quality, and advancing by stages into curves and points, 

 forming, in the best damask, figures resembling grapes or network. 



2. By the line of its ground : the deeper the tint the more perfect the metal. 



3. By the play of colour on the metal in an oblique light. Some show no varia- 

 tion of tint, whilst others take on a crimson or golden hue. The more perceptible the 

 play of colour the finer the quality of the damask. 



The qualifications claimed for the most perfect damask are extreme malleability 

 and ductility, the hardest possible substance after tempering, the keenest and firmest 

 edge, and elasticity when properly tempered. 



DAMASCUS GUN-BARRELS. See GTJN-BARREL. 



D AMASS is a variegated textile fabric, richly ornamented with figures of flowers, 

 fruits, landscapes, animals, &c., woven in the loom, and is by far the most rich, elegant, 

 and expensive species of ornamental weaving, tapestry alone excepted. The name is 

 said to be derived from Damascus, where it was anciently made. 



Damask belongs to that species of texture which is distinguished by practical men 

 by the name of tweeling, of which it is the richest pattern. The tweel of damask is 

 usually half that of full satin, and consequently consists of eight leaves moved either 

 in regular succession or by regular intervals, eight leaves being the smallest number 

 which will admit of alternate tweeHng at equal intervals. 



The generic difference of tweeling, when compared with common cloth, consists in 

 the intersections, although uniform and equidistant, being at determinate intervals, 

 and not between the alternate threads. Hence we have the specimens of tweeled cloth, 

 where the intersections take place at the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, 

 or sixteenth interval only. The threads thus deflecting only from a straight line at 

 intervals, preserve more of their original direction, and a much greater quality of 

 materials can be combined in an equal space, than in the alternate intersection, where 

 the tortuous deflection, at every interval, keeps them more asunder. On this principle 

 tweeled cloths of three and four leaves are woven with facility of combination alone. 

 The coarser species of ornamental cloths, known by the names of dornock and diaper, 

 usually intersect at the fifth, or half satin interval. The sixth and seventh are rarely 

 used, and the intersection at the eighth is distinguished by the name of satin in 

 common, and of damask in ornamental tweeling. It will further be very obvious, 

 that where the warp and woof cross only at every eighth interval, the two sides of the 

 cloth will present a diversity of appearance ; for on one side the longitudinal or warp 

 threads will run parallel from one end of a web to the other, and, on the other, the 

 threads of woof will run also parallel, but in a transverse direction across the cloth, 

 or at right angles to the former. The points of intersection being only at every 

 eighth interval, appear only like points; and in regular tweeling these form the 

 appearance of diagonal lines, inclined at an angle of 45 (or nearly so) to each of the 

 former. 



The appearance, therefore, of a piece of cotton tweeled cloth is very similar to that 

 of two thin boards glued together, with the grain of the upper piece at right angles 

 to that of the under one. That of an ornamental piece of damask may, in the same 

 manner, be very properly assimilated to a piece of veneering, where all the wood is of 

 the same substance and colour, and where the figures assume a diversity of appearance 

 from the ground, merely by the grain of the one being disposed perpendicularly to that 

 of the other. 



From this statement of the principle, it results that the most unlimited variety of 

 figures will be produced by constructing a loom by which every individual thread of 



