MAKING BKOOMS BY MACHINERY. 53 



brush is put on. The wire is wound on a reel, shown in 

 the engraving at c, passes around three pulleys, by which 

 the requisite tension is procured, and then passes to the 

 broom-handle. When the wire is properly fastened, the 

 operator takes a handful of coarse, rough brush, and holds 

 the stalks beneath the wire as the handle turns, spread- 

 ing them smoothly, and pounding them down closely 

 with a flat pounder, made something like a common po- 

 tato masher, which is used in kitchens, but is flat or 

 oval instead of round. This brush is the filling, and 

 about three small handfuls are needed for each broom. 

 The wire should be wound around the filling three or 

 four times, and as the brush revolves the stalks are 

 smoothed off with a sharp knife just above the last turn 

 of the wire. The wire is then slipped off of the brush on 

 to the handle, and wound around it once about half an 

 inch above the smoothed end of the stalks. Then a 

 handful of the sorted brush, suitable for the kind of 

 broom to be made, is taken in the left hand, and with 

 the knife the stalks are cut half through with a sloping 

 cut half an inch above the straw, and the half of the 

 stalk split off. The stalks are then placed beneath the 

 wire so that it may be wound exactly over where they 

 were cut. The treadle is turned until the stalks are all 

 bound on, when another handful is taken and treated 

 precisely the same way, and then finally another handful. 

 Each handful consists of six or eight stalks, and they 

 should be placed smoothly and close together under the 

 wire. The wire is bound evenly around the stalks until 

 there is sufficient to hold the broom firmly together, 

 when it is fastened with a tack as at the commencement. 

 The pounder is constantly used to pack the brush be- 

 neath the wire and make the broom firm and hard. 



It would be a good practical lesson to take an old 

 broom to pieces while studying these processes, so as to 

 fix them clearly on the mind. The broom is now of a 



