Dec. 1, 1864.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 213 



pleted, will soon unveil the mystery, and Yankee skill will, doubtless, 

 achieve results equal to that of European. 



It is a noticeable fact that of the foreign workmen now in this 

 country the French still maintain the supremacy. Englishmen make 

 good leather and good gloves, but in elasticity, durability, and finish, as 

 well as in the beauty and brilliancy of the colouring, the French far 

 surpass them. In the cutting and making up of gloves it is still the 

 same. A better fit is obtained by a French workmen, and the sewing is 

 superior. 



Besides, a Frenchman will cut one or two more pairs of gloves out 

 of a skin than an Englishman, and still have no inferior ones. " Yankees 

 are in too great a hurry to perform such work well," remarked a manu- 

 facturer ; " they pride themselves rather upon the amount of labour 

 performed in a given time, than upon the skill displayed ;" which is 

 doubtless true. So that until our countrymen learn the lesson of 

 patience, they will not be likely to rival their foreign competitors in 

 glove- making. 



After all the process of trimming, finishing, and dying are com- 

 pleted, the skin is stretched upon a marble table and rubbed with a 

 blunt knife. It is then cut through the middle, and a strip for the 

 palm and back of a glove cut, just wide enough for the purpose, from 

 one end of each piece. Being cut in this way the pairs are alike, of 

 similar finish, thickness, and tint. In France 375,000 dozens of skins 

 are thus cut annually. In time, with protection and native industry, 

 there is no reason why as large a number should not be manufactured 

 here. 



A French glove-cutter cuts nearly all his " sized-gloves " by eye. By 

 sized gloves is meant those whose size is indicated by numbers, which 

 includes all the ladies' kid gloves and all the finer men's gloves. In 

 securing an accurate and easy fit, great care is necessary in placing the 

 thumb-hole. M. Jouvin has invented a mode of cutting the thumb with 

 the hand. 



In some factories these gloves are cut in part by punches, steel 

 instruments similar to the " gouges " used in cutting buck gloves. 

 These punches have a toothed apparatus that pricks the holes 

 for the stitches. The seams are then sewed with perfect regularity, 

 by laying the edges evenly together, and placing them in a vice pro- 

 vided with teeth one - twelfth of an inch apart, between Avhich 

 teeth the needle passes in sewing. After the seams are sewed, 

 the embroidery is put upon the back, the wrist bound or otherwise 

 finished, and the fastenings sewn on. The glove is then stretched, 

 placed in a linen cloth, slightly dampened and beaten to make it more 

 flexible. After being pressed, it is ready for the market. 



The skins used in making fine gloves are usually those of the kid 

 and goat, but many are made of Cape sheep and other fine and flexible 

 leather. It has been repeatedly and confidently asserted that many of 



