FURNITURE AND FURNISHINGS 



cutting out the wood wherever it touched. It was, in 

 fact, a reversal of the principle of the turning-lathe, 

 the tool itself doing the revolving instead of the wood. 



The whirling tool was fastened to a movable arm 

 above a piece of wood on which a pattern had been 

 drawn or stamped. By setting this machine in motion, 

 the workman, by guiding the whirling chisel over the 

 surface marked by the pattern, could carve out the 

 wood much more rapidly than could be done by the 

 hand-carver. Such mechanical carving was rough 

 and unfinished as it came from the machine, but a 

 few hours of additional work by the hand-carver could 

 quickly convert it into a well-finished product, scarcely 

 distinguishable from the coarser forms of hand-carving. 



Such machines at once menaced the profession of 

 the wood-carver. Their work was so rapid, their 

 manipulation so simple, and the results so closely 

 resembled hand-carving that there was little choice 

 between the two in certain grades of work. The differ- 

 ence in the cost of production was, of course, enormous, 

 and what still further menaced the wood-carvers was 

 the fact that an unskilled workman might operate 

 such a machine. Almost any workman could learn 

 to follow a pattern with a little practice, so that the 

 services of trained wood-carvers would only be neces- 

 sary for giving certain finishing touches, or for doing 

 the very finest work in factories. Thus many wood- 

 carvers found themselves confronted with the necessity 

 of remaining idle or accepting positions as machine 

 operators at the pay of unskilled workmen. 



But the end of the degradation of the wood-carver 



[219] 



