142 TEXTILE FIBRES. 



instructions as a special appliance for fire-extinguishing purposes. It is 

 used by dipping the brushes into buckets of water and then applying 

 them to such portions of machinery as may have caught fire. It has 

 been found very effective in extinguishing fires in their early stages in 

 cotton mills, particularly in the wooden parts of " self-acting mule " 

 carriages, which are saturated with oil, and are liable to fire from friction 

 of the tin roller studs and bearings. The use of vegetable bass and 

 bundle fibres has increased of late years. 



The picking of succulent pendulous fruit, such as red and black 

 currants and gooseberries, is now done to a great extent by brush 

 machinery in the largest jam works. The apparatus consists of revolv- 

 ing brushes attached to shafting. The fibres of the brushes are just 

 sufficiently pliable as not to damage the fruit, and yet are capable of 

 detaching the pendulous branching stalks. 



A stiff kind of bristle-like fibre is used as a burnishing brush by 

 calico printers, for clearing out the colour dirt of copper rollers. 



A stripping brush is used for cleaning the main cylinders and doffers 

 of carding engines, and another for brushing out impurities from revolving 

 flats. These are sometimes made in a spiral form. Copper-roller brushes 

 and iron-roller brushes are generally made of short, stiff fibres. In fine 

 spun yarns of the Bolton district of Lancashire, it is customary to comb 

 out the short fibres, and a comber-brush is used to clean out the waste 

 fibres. A mill broom, with fibres of a similar texture to the banister 

 brush, is used in spinning-rooms and weaving-sheds from hogs' bristles. 



A cog-wheel grease brush is made flat with a long handle, so that 

 grease may be placed on cog-wheels while they are in motion. For 

 lime washing, bristle fibre brushes are in constant demand, as also for 

 cleaning the twist yarn in the winding frames. Hair brushing is done 

 by hand and machinery ; also chimney cleaning or sweeping on a large 

 scale, and bottle cleaning by mineral water manufacturers. 



Circular revolving brushes are made with whisk fibres, which are very 

 stiff. They assist in raising and cleaning the nap in " Moser " raising 

 machines in woollen manufacture. 



A few of the names given to brushes that are in constant demand 

 include The Hair Stair Carpet, Hair Double Banister, Long Whisk 

 Banister, Short Cut Whisk Carpet Broom, Victoria Whisk Carpet Broom, 

 The Set Chamber Whisk Carpet Broom, Weed Broom, Black Lead, 

 Scrubbing and Laundry Brushes, Cocoa-nut and Hair Banister Brushes, 

 Bottle Brushes and those used for Electric Dynamo Installations, also the 

 Ewbank Carpet Sweeper and Copbottom Paste Brushes. 



Coarse interlaced plai tings of cane are used as carpet beaters, and 

 enamelled thin pleats of cane are intersected so as to imitate the structure 



