F I L 
a thin fhell.—For the culture, fee the article Corylus, 
Vol. v. p. 246.—There is another kind, called the filbert 
of Conftantinople ; the leaves and fruit of which are bigger 
than either of the former. Mortimer. 
Thou haft a brain, fuch as it is indeed! 
On what elfe them'd thy worm of fancy feedf 
Yet in a filbert I have often known 
Maggots furvive, w hen all the kernel’s gone. Dorfet. 
To FILCH, v. a. [A word of uncertain etymology. 
The. French word filer, from which fome derive it, is of 
very late production, and therefore cannot be its origi¬ 
nal.] To fteal; to take by theft; to pilfer; to pillage; 
to rob; to take by robbery. It is ufually fpoken of petty 
thefts..—The pifmire was formerly a hulbandma'n, that 
fecrerly filched away his neighbour’s goods. L'EJlrange. 
Who fteals my purfe, fteals trafh ; ’tis fomething, nothing; 
3 Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been flave to thoufands; 
But he that filches from me my good name, 
Robs me of that which not enriches him, 
And makes me poor indeed. Shakefpeare . . 
FIL'CHER, f. A thief; a petty robber. 
FILE ,_/1 \_filc, Fr. filum, a thread, Lat.] A thread, 
Notufcd. —But let me relume the file of my narration, 
which this objeCl of books, beft agreeable to my courfe 
of life, hath a little interrupted. IVotton. —A line.On which 
papers, letters, bills, receipts, &C. are ftrung, to keep 
them in order: 
Th’ apothecary-train is wholly blind ; 
From files a random recipe they take, 
And many deaths of one prefeription make. Drydcn. . 
A catalogue ; roll; feries : 
Our prefent mufters grow upon the file'' 
To five and twenty thoufand men of choice. Shakefpeare. 
A line of foldiers ranged one behind another; rank and 
file: 
Thofe goodly eyes, • 
That o’er the files and mufters of the war 
Have glow’d like plated Mars, now bend,; now turn 
Upon a tawny front. Shakefpeare. 
[Feol, Saxon; vijle, Dutch.] An inftrument to rub down 
prominences.—The rough or coarfe-toothed file , if it be 
large, is called a rubber, and is to take off the unevennefs 
of your work which the hammer made in the forging: 
the baftard-toothed file is to take out of your Work the 
deep cuts, or file-ftrokes, the rough file made : the fine¬ 
toothed file is to take out the cuts, or file-ftrokes, the 
baftard file made : and the fmooth file is to take out thofe 
cuts, or file-ftrokes, that the fine file made. Moxon. 
The fmiths and armourers on palfreys ride. 
Files in their hands, and hammers at their fide. Drydcn. 
The art of cutting files has for many ages been almoft 
exclufively the province of the Britifh manufacturers of 
that valuable utenfil. Even in France, the fupeiiority 
and beauty of the Englifh files have been univerf.dly ac¬ 
knowledged ; and when it was found that feveral millions 
of livres were annually remitted to this country for the 
purchafe of that article, citizen Raoul, in 1801, eftablithed 
a manufactory of files in France, with a view to excel the 
Englifh, in order to difeontinue the further importation 
of them from this country. Samples of the different kinds 
of Raoul’s manufacture were lately exhibited before the 
Lyceum of Arts at Paris; but we have the fatisfaCtion to 
find that the demand from England is not at all diminifhed. 
Improvements in the art of cutting files have alfo been 
recently made in England ; and letters patent, for the 
more expeditious manufacturing of them, by means of a 
new apparatus, w'ere granted to Mr. William Nicholfon, 
of Soho-fquare, London, dated Auguft 12, 1802.—We 
fhall ftate this improved method of manufacturing files, in 
the inventor’s own words, viz. “My machinery confifts 
in four eflential parts fuitably combined together; name- 
F I L 367 
ly, firft, a carriage or apparatus, in which the file is held 
and moved along, for the purpofe of receiving the ftrokes 
of a cutter or chifel : fecondly, the anvil, by which the 
file is fupported beneath the part which receives the 
ftroke : thirdly, the regulating gear, by which the dif- 
tance between ftroke and ftroke is governed : and, fourth¬ 
ly, tlie apparatus for giving the ftroke or cut. Thefe fe¬ 
veral parts are fupported by a frame or platform of folid 
and fecure workmanfhip, either of wood or metal, or both, 
according to the nature of the work intended to be per¬ 
formed, and the judgment and choice of the manufacturer. 
“The carriage is a long block of wood, or metal, of the 
figure of a parallelipidon, having a portion cut out be¬ 
tween its upper and lower furfaces to admit the anvil to 
ftand in, without coming into contaCt with the carriage 
itfelf. The carriage is made of fuch a length that the 
excavation here deferibed fhall be confiderably longer than 
the longeft files intended to be cut; and it is fupported 
upon ftraight bearers from the platform, upon which, by 
pirojefting Aides, or wheels, or friCtion-rollers, it can be 
moved endwife in a ftraight direction, without (hake or 
deviation. At one end nf the excavation is fixed a clip, 
refembling a hand-vice, for holding the file by its tail or 
tang ; and in the oppofite end of the fame excavation there 
is a Aiding block or piece, which, being brought up to the 
other end of the file, does, by means of a notch, prevent 
it from being moved fidewife. The clip is fo fixed at its 
head or (hank by means of an horizontal axis, on gudgeons 
and fockers, that the file is at liberty to move up and 
down, but not fidewife or atwift. The file being thus 
fixed in the carriage, is preffed dpwn upon the anvil by 
a lever and weight proceeding from the platform, which 
bears upon tiie face of the file by a fmall roller of wood, 
bone, or foft metal. 
“ The anvil is folidly fixed on the platform, and maybe 
of any fuitable figure which fixal 1 be fufficiently maffy to 
receive and refill: the blow ; but its furface nuift be fo 
contrailed as to ftand up in the excavation of the carriage, 
and fupport the file.; and the upper part of all rauft be 
conftructed in fuch a manner that it (hall fairly apply it¬ 
felf to the under furface of the file, and fupport it with¬ 
out leaving any hollow fpace, notwithftanding any cafual 
irregularities of the faid furface. I produce this etfeit by 
making a cavity in the anvil, of the figure of a portion 
of a fphere, not much lefs than an hemiiphere, and in this 
cavity I place a piece of iron, or fteel, made exactly to 
fit; but of which the lower furface is a greater portion 
of the fphere, and the upper furface flat and plane. The 
file reds upon this laft flat or plane furface, which is either 
faced with lead, or (in preference) a flip of lead is put 
under the file and turned round the tang thereof fo as to 
move along with it. It is evident that the upper or 
moveable piece of anvilwill, by Hiding in its focket, ac¬ 
commodate itfelf conftantly to the furface of the file, 
which is preffed and ftruck againft it. Or, othervvife, I 
make the concavity in the upper moveable piece, and 
make the fixed part convex : or otherwife, I fupport the 
upper part, or in fome cafes the whole of my anvil, upon 
oppofite gudgeons, in the manner of the gimbals of iea- 
compaffes : or, otherwife, I form the upper part of my 
anvil cylindrical, of a large diameter, fupported on thick 
gudgeons, the axis of the laid cylinder being fliort, and 
at right angles to the motion of the carriage : or, other- 
wife, I form only a fmall portion, namely, the upper ex¬ 
tremity of my anvil of a cylindrical form, and caufe it to 
remain motionlefs, by fafhioning it of the fame mals as ■> 
the reft of the anvil, or by fixing it thereto. And in both 
the laft-mentioned cafes of the cylindrical ftruchne, I fix ■ 
the head or thank of the clip, by which the tang is held, 
not by a tingle axis or pair of gudgeons, but by an uni- 
verfal joint or ball and focket, fo that the file becomes at 
liberty to adapt itfelf not only upwards and downwards, 
but alfo in the way of rotation or atwift, and fupplies the 
want of motion in the anvil by the facility with which it 
can itfelf be moved in the lull-mentioned maimer. 
' The . 
