FURNISHED LODGINGS. 



FURRIERY ; FUR DRESSING. 



212 



the hearth on which the substance to be heated is placed, and this is 

 either horizontal or inclined ; lastly, c is a low wall or the bridge of 

 the furnace, which retains the fuel in its place, and serves to direct 

 the flame towards ;the roof : a shows the opening of the furnace, 

 usually placed at its side ; through this the substance to be heated is 

 introduced, and it is afterwards closed ; often also there is an opening at 

 B, to allow of melted metal to flow out. H is a very high chimney 

 that produces the draught, and which may be closed by a damper. As 

 this furnace is employed for a vast number of purposes, it is evident 

 that various forma must be used ; these however it will not be neces- 

 sary to describe. 



Pig-iron Furnace. 



The piij-iron furnace (see preceding figure) ig that used in South 

 Wales and elsewhere in the making of pig-iron ; the height of this 

 furnace, from the bottom at A to the filling-place at B, is 50 feet ; 

 the height of the hearth, from A to c, 8J feet ; from c to the top of 

 the boshes at D, 84 feet. The diameter of the hearth from A to c 

 increases from 3 feet to 3 4 feet. The extreme width at the top of 

 the boshes D is 11 feet. The diameter of the charging-place B is 

 6 feet. E E E E, the lining, i composed of a double circle of fire-bricks, 

 about 1 5 inches long each, with a space for an intermediate packing of 

 sand. F r, the hearth, is constructed of large blocks of breccia, or 

 plum-pudding stone ; o o are the tuyers or openings by which the 

 blast is discharged into the furnace from the blowing cylinder, which 

 is worked by a steam-engine. The contents of this furnace are 5015 

 feet ; and it is capable of producing 100 tons of pig-iron weekly. 



This important subject of blast-furnaces will receive further elucida- 

 tion in IRON MANUFACTURE. 



In connection with furnaces generally, the new inventions are so 

 numerous as to be quite beyond even enumeration in an article such 

 as the present. Some of the improvements relate to the furnaces of 

 locomotives ; gome to those of marine engines ; gome to those of 

 stationary engines ; and some to furnaces in general. In one class of 

 cases the patentees seek to economise space, in another fuel, and in 

 another to effect the consumption or prevention of smoke. Some 

 relate to metallic furnaces, and some to brick-furnaces. In some the 

 object ia to raise steam in great quantity ; while in others it is to 

 obtain rapidity rather than quantity. Many of these new forms of 

 furnace will receive brief notice in the articles relating to Metallurgic, 

 Manufacturing, and Civil Engineering subjects. 



FURNISHED LODGINGS. [Lorxmros.] 



FURRIERY ; FUR DRESSING. The various kinds of fur im- 

 ported from foreign parts, as well as some found in our own country, 

 may be classed according to their use as felted furs and dreticd furs. 



Pelted fun. These include all such as are employed in hat-making ; 

 and are principally the skins of the hare, the rabbit, the beaver, and 

 the neutria. If the skin be taken off the annual in winter when the 

 fur is full, soft, and fine, it ia called " seagoned," and sells at the 



ARTS ASD 8CI. D1V. VOL. IV. 



highest price ; but if taken off at any other period of the year, it ig 

 comparatively short, coarse, hairy, and less valuable, and obtains the 

 name of " unseasoned skin." 



In the preparation of hares' fur for the hatter, the skin, after being 

 opened and spread out flat, is rubbed with a kind of saw called a rate, 

 for the purpose of clearing away the dirt and dried blood without 

 detaching any of the fur itself. This done, the skin is damped on the 

 pelt or inner side ; and several are pressed one on another to remove 

 creases and irregularities. Next ensues the separation of the furry 

 covering from the felt beneath. This covering is of two kinds : an 

 external coat of long hairs which possess no felting properties, and an 

 internal coat of fine or true fur. These are removed separately. A 

 pair of shears, something like those used in shearing sheep, are worked 

 all over the surface of the skill so as to cut off the coarse hair without 

 damaging the fine fur beneath ; and to effect this properly is a difficult 

 operation. The skin before this shearing was of a brownish colour, 

 but when the external hair is removed the fur beneath appears as a 

 beautiful jet-black glossy fibre. To remove this fur is the next stage. 

 The skin, extended smooth and even, is placed upon a square cuttiiig- 

 board, made of willow, wetted occasionally to avoid blunting the edge 

 of the knife employed in the cutting. This knife is about six inches 

 long by three broad, and has a rough edge ; it is shaped something like 

 a cheese-cutter, so as to be used alike backwards and forwards. With 

 such a knife the fur is cut gradually in every part of the pelt ; the 

 knife follows the direction which the fur naturally takes on the 

 animal's skin : that is, from the head towards the tail. The whole of 

 the fur from one skin is either collected together as a light fleecy mass, 

 or is separated into parcels according to the different qualities of the 

 different parts. 



The preparation of rabbits' fur for the hatter is somewhat different 

 from the above in its earlier stages, on account of the greater greasi- 

 ness of the pelt or inner surface of the skin. By the use 'of a knife 

 in a peculiar way, the thin cuticle on which the grease or fat is 

 deposited is stripped off, bringing the impurities away with it. The 

 surface beneath is then rubbed with whiting. The rabbit skin, like 

 that of the hare, has two kinds of hair or fur ; but the coarser, instead 

 of being removed by shearing, requires to be pulled ; this is done by a 

 short knife about three inches long, held against a leathern shield 

 worn over the thumb : the hairs are grasped, a few at a time, between 

 the knife and the thumb, and pulled out. A double care ia here 

 requisite : to avoid cutting the hair instead of pulling it, and to avoid 

 pulling or cutting the fine fur beneath. When this is done, the fine 

 fur is cut off in the same manner as hare's fur. 



For the neutria s/ti'n-8, obtained from' the coypou of America, the 

 processes are nearly the same. The skin has derived its name (vari- 

 ously written neutria, nutria, nevtra, nuetra) from the Spanish name 

 for an otter, to whose skin it bears some resemblance. It is full of 

 fat and grease, and requires a thorough washing with soap and boiling 

 water before being " pulled." The outer or coarse hairs are treated 

 like those of the rabbit and not like those of the hare ; being stronger, 

 too, they require a sharper knife and a stronger pull for their extrac- 

 tion. Not only the pelt side, but also the fur-side is full of grease, 

 and need a thorough purification before the removal of the hairs and 

 fur. When the external hair has been pulled, the inner fur is cut in 

 the same way as the others. 



The skin of the beaver is, in many respects, the most serviceable of 

 them all for the hatter's purpose. It is, however, so full of grease 

 that the pelt requires to be scoured with fullers' earth and whiting 

 before it attains a sufficient state of cleanness. The coarse hairs are 

 pulled out by the knife and thumb ; and being of no use to the hatter, 

 they are sold as stuffing for cushions. Then comes the cutting or 

 cropping, which is, at the present day and in the largest establish- 

 ments, effected by a very beautiful machine. There is a long broad 

 and sharp blade, equalling in length the full width of the beaver-skin, 

 and so adjusted as to fall rapidly with a chopping action against or 

 near the edge of another blade beneath. The skin is placed between 

 the two, and is attached to a piece of mechanism by which it is 

 drawn gradually from end to end between them ; as it passes, the 

 sharp blade crops the fur from off the pelt, which it does so effectually 

 that not a particle of fur is left behind, and yet the pelt is not cut 

 through hi any part. The fur falls down in a light flocculent layer on 

 an endless apron beneath, from whence it is removed when the pelt is 

 denuded. This fur is of three or four different qualities, that from 

 the cheek being the finest and most valual >le ; and to separate them 

 one from another a method at once simple and elegant is adopted. 

 The fur is placed in a large chest or trough, where it comes within the 

 action of a fan revolving two thousand times in a minute ; the current 

 excited by this fan is so violent that it whirls the fur along a holluvv 

 trunk or channel fifty feet in length. During the passage of the fur, 

 the relative specific gravities of the filaments effect a separation with- 

 out any farther interference : those which are largest and coarsest fall 

 first, and are deposited on the bottom of the first compartment of the 

 trough ; those which are next heavier are deposited farther on ; and 

 lastly, the finest and best parts of the fur are blown to the extreme 

 end of the trough, whence they can be taken without admixture 

 with any of the others. 



The cutting of the fur from the pelt by machinery has been 

 attempted for various furs, but it has succeeded only with the beaver ; 



