TALUS TAMBOUR. 



513 



synagogues of Palestine had almost entirely disap- 

 peared, the Babylonian rabbis gradually composed 

 new commentaries on the Mishna, which, about 500 

 A. D., were completed, and thus formed the Babylo- 

 nian Talmud. 



TALUS, in mythology ; a brazen image which 

 Vulcan gave to Minos, or Jupiter to Europa. It 

 was endowed with life, and had a single blood-ves- 

 sel running from the neck to the heel, and closed 

 with a brazen nail. Talus was the protector of 

 Crete, and went three times daily around the island, 

 to defend it against attacks. The fable says that 

 he prevented the enemies of Crete from landing, by 

 heating his body in fire, and then embracing them 

 with his glowing arms. Other stories are also told 

 of him, which seem to indicate that Talus was pro- 

 bably a brazen statue, serving as a beacon, placed 

 by the Phoenicians on a promontory of Crete. 

 Medea, by her arts, eventually destroyed Talus, 

 when she landed with the Argonauts. Another 

 Talus is mentioned ; a son of the sister of Daedalus, 

 who invented the saw, compasses, and other me- 

 chanical instruments. His uncle became jealous of 

 his growing fame, and murdered him privately ; or, 

 according to some, threw him down from the cita- 

 del of Athens. Talus was changed into a partridge 

 by the gods. He is also called Calus, Acalus, Per- 

 dix, and Taliris. 



T AM AH AM A. See Tammeamea. 



TAMARIND-TREE (tamarindus Indica}-, a 

 large and beautiful tree of the East Indies, belong- 

 ing to the natural family leguminosee. The leaves 

 are pinnate, composed of sixteen or eighteen pairs 

 of sessile leaflets, which are half an inch only in 

 length, and one sixth in breadth. The flowers are 

 disposed, five or six together, in loose clusters : the 

 petals are yellowish, and beautifully variegated with 

 red veins. The pods are thick, compressed, and of 

 a dull brown colour when ripe. The seeds are flat, 

 angular, hard and shining, and are lodged in a dark, 

 soft, adhesive pulp. The tamarind-tree exists also 

 in Arabia, Egypt, and other parts of Africa; but 

 that of the West Indies is perhaps a different species, 

 distinguished by the shortness of the pods, which 

 contain two, three or four seeds only. In the West 

 Indies, the pods are gathered in June, July and 

 August, when fully ripe ; and the fruit, being freed 

 from the shelly fragments, is placed in layers in a 

 cask, and boiling syrup poured over it till the cask 

 is filled; the syrup pervades every part quite down 

 to the bottom ; and when cool the cask is headed 

 for sale. The East India tamarinds are darker col- 

 oured and drier, are more esteemed, and are said to 

 be preserved without sugar. This fruit has an 

 agreeable acid and sweetish taste, is refrigerant 

 and gently laxative. A simple infusion in warm 

 water forms a very grateful beverage, which is ad- 

 vantageously used in febrile diseases. The Turks 

 and Arabs carry the pods, prepared with sugar or 

 honey, either green or ripe, in their journeys across 

 the deserts ; and they are found to constitute an 

 agreeable and wholesome article of food. 



TAMBOUR; a species of embroidery intro- 

 duced into this country, in the course of the last 

 century. This branch of art does not at the pre- 

 sent day prevail in Great Britain to the extent it 

 did some years ago ; latterly, the sewing of muslins, 

 &c. has taken its place, and in a great degree su- 

 perseded it. The Swiss, from whom the working 

 in tambour is derived, appear to have always 

 maintained a superiority in this description of work. 

 A single tambour worker usually sits at a low cir- 



cular frame, over the top of which the silk, linen, 

 or muslin is stretched by means of a hoop, much 

 in the same way as the head of a drum is tight- 

 ened. A frame of different construction is used 

 when several workers are employed on the same 

 fabric ; consisting principally of two rollers, which, 

 when properly fixed, stretch the linen, &c. to 

 the necessary degree of tension. As the work 

 proceeds, the finished part is wound over one roller, 

 whilst a fresh surface is at the same time unwound 

 from the other. The needle, which is about half an 

 inch in length, terminates in a small hook with the 

 point curving inwards. This is fixed in a handle of 

 bone, ivory or wood, of the thickness of a quill, by 

 means of a small screw on the side. The worker, 

 holding the thread on the under side of the frame, 

 passes the needle through the muslin, &c., from the 

 upper side, and by a continued series of loops inter- 

 woven together, succeeds in producing a very 

 minute and beautiful chain line, with which she 

 traverses the outline of any pattern previously 

 sketched upon the fabric she is employed to orna- 

 ment. Machines have been constructed for tam- 

 bour working, and continue to be used with much 

 success. The embroidering machine invented by 

 Mr Heilmann of Mulhausen has obtained much 

 credit in this country and throughout the conti- 

 nent ; and though its operations differ from the prin- 

 ciples of manual tambouring, the patterns wrought 

 by it more resemble tambour work than any other 

 species of embroidery. We therefore introduce a 

 full description of this ingenious piece of mechanism, 

 together with plans, sections and elevations neces- 

 sary for a clear illustration of the principles on 

 which it works. 



Our admiration of the ingenuity exercised in its 

 construction is excited not less by a survey of the 

 rich embroideries executed by it, than by the ra- 

 pidity of its movements and the delicacy of its 

 operations when in motion. Within a small space, 

 one hundred and thirty embroidering needles are 

 seen, each copying the same design, and performing 

 its task with unerring exactness. The usefulness 

 of the invention is attested by its introduction into 

 the manufactories of England, France, Germany, 

 and Switzerland, where its advantages are appre- 

 ciated and acknowledged. 



A mechanical contrivance to execute at once one 

 hundred and thirty copies of a design in em- 

 broidery, and that too with all the delicacy and ex- 

 actness which this kind of work requires, is very 

 difficult of construction, since an almost imper- 

 ceptible irregularity in the details would alto- 

 gether derange the operations of the machine. The 

 house of Koechlin and Mulbausen, however, have 

 surmounted all difficulties in the construction of 

 the machines ; and from their admirable models the 

 mechanics of Birmingham produced others in no 

 wise inferior, though it does not appear that they 

 have been able to suggest any improvement on the 

 original invention. 



The price of a machine, having one hundred 

 and thirty needles, and two hundred and sixty 

 pincers, is 250 or 5000 francs ; and this, it is 

 estimated, will perform the work of fifteen em- 

 broiderers, while it requires only one man and 

 two girls to keep it in action. It is necessary 

 that the man be of some experience in the trade, 

 since he has to superintend and assist the operations 

 of the machine, by tracing the design with the point 

 of the pantograph with one hand, whilst with the 

 other he turns a handle for placing and drawing all 

 2 K 



