421 



BRUSH; BRUSH-MAKING. 



BUCCANEERS. 



422 



other brushes of this character, are occasionally made by the process 

 last described. 



Short and stiff-haired brushes are usually made by the 'drawn' 

 method, instead of the ' set-work ' method. The stock of a drawn 

 brush is bored in a similar manner to that of a set brush, but more 

 carefully. After each knot-hole has been bored just as far as the knot 

 is intended to go, a smaller boring instrument, called a bore-tkroitfih-bil, 

 is fixed in the lathe, and with it a small hole is bored completely 

 through the stock, in continuation of each knot-hole. The brush- 

 maker then, instead of taking in his hand as many bristles as will fill 

 the hole, takes about half that number, and passes a portion of their 

 root-ends through the bight of a fine wire, which, with the other hand 

 he has passed double through the stock from the small hole which 

 penetrates it. Having done this, he gives a smart pull to the wire, the 

 effect of which is to pull it back through the hole so far as the knot 

 will allow it to come, the knot itself being, at the same time, drawn 

 into a bight or double, which enters the hole in the stock, and is drawn in 

 until stopped by the shoulder which is formed at the narrowing of the 

 hole. Passing his wire, which is almost as pliable as thread, through 

 the next hole, the workman applies another knot in like manner, and 

 so on until a row is completed, when he cuts the ends of the whole 

 row off with a pair of powerful shears, to which is attached by screws 

 a gauge to regulate the precise length of tuft to be left. As the 

 drawing-wires at the back of the stock would, if exposed, hurt the 

 hand and be very liable to injury, it is usual to cover them, even in 

 the commoner kinds of brushes, with a thin piece of wood as a veneer. 

 Drawn brushes comprise all kinds of scrubbing-brushes, shoe-brushe.s, 

 clothes-brushes, and tooth and nail-brushes. As veneering would be a 

 difficult operation to perform upon tooth-brushes, these and other 

 small brushes mounted in bone or ivory are frequently drawn with 

 silver wire, which is either left visible, or sunk in fine grooves cut in 

 the back of the brush, which are afterwards filled up with a hard red 

 cement ; but in the best sorts a very ingenious process called trepannini/ 

 is substituted for the ordinary mode of drawing. In trepanned work 

 the drawing holes are not continued through to the back of the stock, 

 but are formed laterally in its thickness, from the end or sides, in 

 such a way that after the drawing, which is then performed with 

 thread or silk instead of wire, is completed, all traces of the operation 

 can be concealed by filling up .1 few minute holes in an unconspicuous 

 part of the stock with small plugs of bone or ivory. 



The operation of drawing, in the larger and coarser kinds of work, 

 requires great strength of hand and arm, and is performed by men. 

 In the finer kinds of brush-drawing, in washing and picking the bristles, 

 .in<l in various operations connected with the manufacture of fancy 

 brushes, women are extensively employed ; and as the manufacture is 

 one usually conducted upon rather a small scale, so as to partake of 

 the character of a private or domestic manufacture, it appears to be 

 well adapted for the employment of females and children. 



There are a few other kinds of brush, such as bottle-brushes (con- 

 df tufts fixed so as to radiate from a stem of twisted wire), 

 which it is needless here to particularise. Dr. Ure described a mode 

 of fixing the knote or tufts of brushes in dovetailed grooves formed in 

 the stock, which was the subject of a patent granted in 1830 to Mr. 

 Mason. More recently a patent has been obtained by Mr. Hancock for 

 the manufacture of flexible back brushes, in which the knots are 

 attached to yielding backs of leather instead of wooden stocks, and for 

 some purposes such brushes seem to possess considerable advantages 

 over those of the common construction. 



Of the materials employed in the brush manufacture the most im- 

 portant are hogs' bristles. [BRISTLES.] 



An ornamental appearance is often produced by the insertion, in one 

 bmah, of knots of picked bristles of various colours ; and it is a com- 

 mon practice to put white or yellow bristles at the outside of a brush 

 intended to look neat, while the centre is filled with those of a dark 

 colour. For very soft brushes, such as hat-brushes, horse-hair, goats'- 

 hair, and other kinds of hair are used ; and for purposes which require 

 unusual stiffness, fibres of whalebone, either alone or mixed with 

 bristles, are sometimes employed ; but the present high price of 

 whalebone restricts its me. For very coarse brooms, for stable and 

 out door use, a hard and tough dark-coloured vegetable fibre called 

 bam is much used : brooms made of it superseding, in a great measure, 

 those of birch or heath. Wilt is a light-coloured vegetable substance 

 h finer quality, used principally for carpet brooms ; and a very 

 fine article of the same character has been recently employed in making 

 brushes for velvet. The woods chiefly used for the stocks of the 

 common kinds of drawn brushes are beech and oak, and among those 

 finpjiiyed in ornamental articles are sycamore, lime, rosewood, and 

 mtinwood. For brooms, in which lightness is desirable, alder and 

 liin-h are much used. The wire employed for drawing is mostly a 

 li'uliar kind of brass wire made for the purpose, copper having been 

 1'nMiid too brittle; but a very superior article of compound metal, 

 which has much the appearance of copper, but is very strong in pro- 

 portion to its extreme tenuity, and soft and pliable to a degree which 

 appears surprising in any metal, has recently been introduced under 

 the name of red brass wire. 



Mr. Cole, a brush-manufacturer, took out a patent in 1842 for 

 numerous improvements in brush-making. In the general modes of 

 making brushes the bristles are fixed in their places either by some 



kind of cement or by wire; but in Mr. Cole's method the knot of 

 bristles is kept in each hole by the hole being made of a conical shape, 

 with the smaller end of the cone at the face or hair side of the brush : 

 the knot is so shaped that it maintains its place in the brush without 

 either cement or wire. A second improvement consists in steeping in 

 a preservative solution the string with which some brushes are bound 

 round, so as to enable them to be placed in water without loosening. 

 A third consists in a new mode of fastening wedge-shaped handles into 

 various kinds of brushes. A fourth consists in the manufacture of a 

 new kind of brush for delicate purposes, by making a covering of plush 

 to a foundation of white flock. A fifth consists in making brushes or 

 pencils of spun glass, by which aquafortis and other corrosive acids 

 can be applied by silversmiths and jewellers with more delicacy and 

 safety than by any of the usual means. A sixth improvement is in 

 the construction of brushes intended for cleansing decanters and 

 bottles. A seventh relates to bmshes for cleaning cruets and small 

 phials. 



Numerous patents appear from time to time, relating to new forms 

 of brush. Some are ingenious and useful ; others are singular, without 

 any great chance of being useful. One patent relates to a project for 

 making brushes and brooms of the branches of the cabbage palmetto 

 tree, in such a way that the handle shall form one piece with the brush. 

 Another is for a mode of setting the bristles of an ordinary brush 

 diagonally, by which arrangement, more of them are brought into 

 action at once, and the surface of the brush is firmer. A third is a 

 boiler-cleaning brush : the brush, by the aid of certain wedges, is 

 made to expand and contract, so as to suit the diameters of different 

 kinds of boiler-flues. A fourth is a boot- and shoe-cleaning machine, 

 comprising two discs having brushes on their edges ; treddles give 

 motion to the discs, and the boot or shoe is simply held against the 

 brushes. Many of the forms of knife-cleaning machines consist mainly 

 of two sets of brushes revolving in contact, or nearly so ; and the 

 revolution being in opposite directions, great friction is brought to 

 bear on the two surfaces of the blade of a knife thrust between the 

 brushes. One of the oddest of these novelties is a mode of applying 

 galvanic treatment to the hair, by brushes, of which some of the 

 hairs (if they can so be called) are copper wire, and others zinc 

 wire ; a roll of flannel damped with some acid is to be enclosed in the 

 wood-work of the brush, in such a way as to communicate moisture to 

 the discs ; and the theory of the inventor seems to be that galvanic 

 action, useful in certain states of health or unhealth, would be pro- 

 duced by brushing the hair with a brush so constructed. 



BRYOIDIN. A crystallisable substance, found in the resin of the 

 Canarinm album. It separates from a watery solution in fine silky 

 filaments, which fuse at 275 Fahr., and volatilise slowly at the same 

 temperature. Bryoidin is slightly soluble in cold, more so in hot 

 water, and very soluble in alcohol and ether. Its solution is without 

 action on turmeric paper, but it precipitates solution of acetate of 

 lead. 



BRYONIN. The peculiar principle of bryony-root to which the 

 peculiar properties of the latter are owing ; it is a yellowish white sub- 

 stance, sometimes with a red or brownish tint ; its taste is at first 

 rather sweet, then styptic and extremely bitter. It is soluble in water 

 and in alcohol, but insoluble in ether ; chlorine does not decompose it ; 

 sulphuric acid dissolves it, acquiring first a blue and afterwards a green 

 colour. When decomposed by heat it yields ammonia (?) Alkalies do 

 not alter it ; the aqueous solution is precipitated white by nitrate of 

 silver, yellow by chloride of gold, and white by protonitrate of mercury 

 and by diacetate of lead ; tincture of galls precipitates it of a bright 

 gray colour. It is a drastic purgative, and poisonous in too large 

 doses. 



BUCCANEERS, a most numerous and well-known association of 

 sea-robbers or pirates, who were also called ' The Brethren of the 

 Coast,' and still more commonly ' Flibustiers." The term Buccaneer 

 is of curious derivation. The Caribbee Indians taught the colonists in 

 the West Indies a singular mode of curing and preserving the flesh of 

 cattle : when cured, this flesh was called Bvucan by the Caribbees : 

 from boucan the French made the verb bmuaner, which the ' Diction- 

 naire de Trevoux ' explains to be " to dry red, without salt." Hence 

 comes the noun Boucanier, and our Buccaneer. 



The term Fh'bustier is supposed to be nothing but the French 

 sailors' corruption of our word ' freebooter ; " and it is a curious fact, 

 that as we always used a word corrupted from them, so the French 

 designated the robbers by a word derived from us, invariably calling 

 them flibustiers, or freebooters. The Americans of the United States 

 have farther modified the word into filibuster, and use it to designate 

 those who undertake wars against foreign countries without the sanc- 

 tion of the state. 



The Buccaneers were natives of different parts of Europe, but chiefly 

 of Great Britain and France. They were most of them seafaring 

 people, and the origin of the associations about the year 1524 was 

 entirely owing to the jealousy of the Spaniards, who would not allow 

 any other nation to trade or settle in the West Indies, and who pur- 

 sued the English or French like wild beasts, murdering them where- 

 ever they found them. At that time and long afterwards, Spain, in 

 right of her priority of discovery, and of the well-known bull of Pope 

 Alexander VI., considered the whole of the New World as treasure- 

 trove of which she was lawfully and exclusively the mistress. Every 



