(06 



VENA CONTRACT A. 



VENEERING. 



606 





among the threads of the warp, he inserts a thin straight brass wire at 

 right angles to the length of the piece, or parallel with the shoot. The 

 wire is so placed as to occupy a position through the whole breadth of 

 the fabric, above the warp-threads and below the pile-threads. The 

 treadle is then put to work, the alternate threads of the warp raised, 

 and the shuttle again thrown ; by which a shoot-thread is thrown over 

 the pile-threads, and also over one-half of the warp-threads ; the wire 

 becomes thus, as it were, woven into the substance of the fabric. Two 

 more traverses of the shoot are then made, passing alternately under 

 and over the warp threads in the usual way, but not interfering 

 with the pile-threads. Another wire is then laid in, below all the 

 pile-threads and above all the warp-threads, and this is secured by 

 subsequent shoot-threada, as in the first case. By a delicate and 

 difficult process, these wires are removed by the same operation 

 which produces the raised pile. Each wire is nearly a semicylinder 

 in form, and has along its upper surface a carefully constructed 

 groove; along this groove the weaver passes the sharp edge of 

 a cutting instrument called a trevat, severing the pile-threads in 

 his progress. It necessarily follows from this operation that two 

 ends of each thread are thus loosened ; and these ends, being after- 

 wards brushed up and dressed, constitute a portion of the pile, suffi- 

 ciently long to hide completely the woven fabric beneath. Two wires 

 are employed, because if one only were used, the pile-threads would 

 become disarranged when it was removed. When the liberated wire 

 has been again inserted, and three shoots thrown to secure it, the 

 second line of loops is cut and the second wire removed ; and so on 

 during the weaving of the whole length. 



Striped velvets are produced by some of the pile-threads being 

 uncut. The slowness and delicacy of this branch of manufacture may 

 be judged from the fact that forty or fifty insertions of the grooved 

 wire are made in the space of one inch, the loops of the pile being cut 

 an equal number of times. In addition to the other complications, the 

 weaver has to use two shoot-threads, and consequently two shuttle* ; 

 for the shoot thrown immediately after the insertion of the wire is 

 stouter than the two following. It is considered to amount to a good 

 day's work when one yard of plain velvet has been woven. Cotton is 

 now employed, as well ax silk, in the manufacture of velvet. The 

 different varieties of fustian are a kind of cotton-velvet. 



Among recent inventions in the velvet manufacture, one, by Mr. 

 Gratrix, is applicable to velvets in which the pile is produced by the 

 weft, and the cut made in the direction of the warp. The pile-threads 

 are woven on a series of fine longitudinal knives with elongated points. 

 The knives are stationary, and have their cutting ends attached to a 

 bedding frame. Simultaneously with the weaving, the portions of 

 weft intended to form the pile slide consecutively upon the points of 

 the knives as the cloth is woven ; and the weft, when it arrives at the 

 cutting portions of the knives, is severed. Another arrangement, by 

 the same inventor, is for severing the pile without cutting at all. 

 Wires are woven in with the threads, so as to leave the pile above 

 them ; they pass between two peculiarly-formed rollers, which press 

 open the fibres over each wire, and thus liberate all the wires. Some 

 of the processes recently introduced enable the weaver to cut and 

 emboss the velvet at the same time. 



VENA CONTRACTA. [HTDBODYNAMICS.] 



VENDOR AND PURCHASER. The law of vendors and pur- 

 chasers of real estate in England is a subject of great extent, which 

 may be said to comprise nearly the whole practical application of the 

 law of real property. 



Contracts for the sale and purchase of land or other real estate may 

 be entered into either privately between the parties, or upon a sale by 

 auction. At common law, agreements for the purchase of real estates 

 might be made by ]rol, but by the Statute of Frauds (29 Car. II. 

 0. 3, as. 1, 2, 3, and 4), " All leases, estates, interests of freeholds, or 

 terms of years, or any uncertain interest of, in, or out of any messu- 

 ages, manors, lands, tenements, or hereditaments, made and created by 

 livery and seisin only, or by parol only, and not put in writing by the 

 parties so making or creating the same, or their agents thereunto law- 

 fully authorised by writing, shall have the effect of leases or estates at 

 will, any consideration for making any such parol leases or estates not- 

 withstanding." But leases not exceeding three years, whereupon the 

 rent reserved should amount to two-thirds of the full improved value, 

 are excepted. The act requires the assignment, grant, and surrender 

 of existing interests to be in writing, and enact* that " no action shall 

 be brought whereby to charge any person upon any agreement made 

 upon any contract or sale of lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or 

 any interest in or concerning them, unless the agreement upon which 

 such action shall be brought, or some memorandum or note thereof 

 shall be in writing, and signed by the party to be charged therewith, 

 or some other person thereunto by him lawfully authorised." The 

 note or memorandum of agreement required by the statute need not 

 be a formal document, and any writing, such as a letter, or receipt for 

 purchase-money, may constitute an agreement within the statute, pro- 

 vided it contain the terms of the agreement within itself, or by 

 reference to another writing ; and if the document be written by the 

 party, the occurrence of his name anywhere in the document ii a 

 sufficient signing. 



Upon sales of estate* by public auction, the highest bidder, upon 

 being declared the purchaser, is considered to have entered into a con- 



tract for purchase according to the particulars and subject to the 

 conditions of sale ; and the auctioneer, who is for this purpose con- 

 sidered as the agent of both vendor and purchaser, is thereupon 

 authorised to sign an agreement of purchase. The writing down 

 the purchaser's name upon any memorandum of sale at the time of 

 the bidding is a sufficient signing. Sales by auction of lands are 

 within the above-mentioned enactments of the Statute of Frauds ; but 

 sales before a master under a decree of a court of equity will be carried 

 into execution although the purchaser did not subscribe any agree- 

 ment, for the judgment of the court in confirming the purchase takes 

 it out of the statute. The subject of the sale and purchase of estates 

 is discussed at length in Sugden's (now Lord St. Leonards) and Dart's 

 Treatises on the Law of Vendors and Purchasers of Estates.' 



VENEERING, in cabinet-work, is the art of laying thin leaves, 

 called rtneers, of a valuable kind of wood upon a ground or foundation 

 of inferior material, so as to produce articles of elegant appearance at 

 smaller cost than if they were made solid, or composed entirely of the 

 ornamental wood which appears on the surface. Small veneers are cut 

 by hand with a thin saw, the block being held firmly in a vice ; but 

 large ones are usually cut by machinery, for a notice of which see 

 SAW-MILL. They are carefully brought to the right thickness by fine 

 planes; cut precisely to the required shape; and then glued down to 

 the ground, which should be of dry wood, with strong glue. If the 

 form of the article will permit, it is then put in a press until the 

 glue is dry ; but if not, the newly-laid veneers are covered with a 

 board, which is pressed down either by weights or by poles abutting 

 against the beams in the roof of the workshop. In veneering on curved 

 surfaces a somewhat different course is pursued, but with the same 

 object, that of keeping the veneer in its place until the glue is suffi- 

 ciently set to hold it securely. The work is afterwards finished with 

 very fine planes and scrapers, and polished with fish-skin, wax, and a 

 brush or polisher of shavegross. 



It may here be mentioned, that before the eaw-mills were rendered 

 applicable, the elder Brunei devised a mode of cutting timber into 

 veneers by a kind of knife. This knife was formed of several pieces of 

 steel, exactly in a line on their lower surface. The block of wood was 

 carried sideways beneath the knife by a screw slide, worked by a 

 handle, and the knife cut it by a short reciprocating or sawing action. 

 The block was raised, after each cutting, to a height equal to the thick- 

 ness of the required veneer. The method answered well for straight- 

 grained and pliant wood, such as Honduras mahogany, but not for 

 other kinds. 



Ivory veneers, or rather thin sheets for miniatures and for memo- 

 randum books, are sometimes not more than one-sixtieth of an inch 

 in thickness, requiring much nicety in their manipulation. [IVORY.] 

 Vulcanite, or vulcanised india-rubber, is now used as a veneer. It is 

 rolled into thin sheets, which may be either plain or embossed, and 

 it receives a polish by the rolling. In applying this substance as a 

 veneer, the sheets are dipped for a few minutes in boiling water, till 

 they become as tractable as moist paper ; and the workmen can then 

 veneer with them round and over the sharpest curves and angles. 

 Ordinary wood veneers cannot well be bent round corners ; a patent to 

 effect this has been taken out by Mr. Meadows; but in general -it is 

 not attempted. 



The Americans have recently introduced, under the name of pressed 

 icark, veneering of a remarkable kind. Instead of a thin veneer being 

 placed upon a thicker substratum, the whole substance consists of 

 veneer. It comprises four, six, eight, or any other number of layers. 

 Some strong plain wood, such as black-walnut, is selected for the 

 interior layers, and rosewood or other fancy wood for the exterior. 

 The veneers, which are of the usual thickness, are well saturated with 

 glue, and placed one upon another, with the grain of each layer at 

 right angles to that of the next. The mass, while hot, is placed in 

 moulds, named cawh, and pressed forcibly for twenty-four hours. 

 When taken out, the wood is found to be firm, elastic, and strong, and 

 to conform to any curvature which the mould may have given to it. 

 On account of the crossing of the fibres, the wood can scarcely split, 

 except by a force that would rend it to pieces. The pores have become 

 so filled with glue, as to add in a remarkable way to the strength of 

 the substance. Mr. Belter introduced this art ; and at the present day, 

 pressed-work is very much used in the United States for the better 

 kinds of furniture. Chairs of this make are in demand, for their great 

 strength and remarkable lightness ; it is the back of the chair, generally 

 elegantly curved, that consists of pressed work. There are usually 

 seven layers for the back of a chair, making a substance surprisingly 

 thin in relation to its strength. An odd number of veneers is usually 

 selected, in order that the grain may extend in the same direction on 

 both surfaces. The frame-work for bedsteads is formed in a similar 

 way ; and so are the bodies of such musical instruments as the violin 

 and violoncello. M. Bogaud, another inventor, has succeeded in pro- 

 ducing dilluid or tpheroidal pressed work : that is, articles in wood 

 presenting much deeper curves than those just described. To effect 

 this, the veneers are cut by machines into strips, each of which varies 

 in width according to the part of the mould into which it is to be 

 pressed ; the cutting must be very accurate to effect this, and can only 

 be done by apparatus mathematically adjusted. A curve of double 

 curvature may be produced by this method. Hitherto, this dished 

 pressed work has necessarily been very expensive. 



