Popular Technology Volume II Part 12

9. The materials for the frame and drawers are first marked out, and the several pieces reduced to the form and dimensions required, with planes and other instruments. Thin pieces of mahogany are firmly fixed to the surfaces which require them. This part of the work is called _veneering_. The workman prepares the surface of the soft wood for the _veneer_, by cutting it into small contiguous grooves by means of a small plane, the cutting edge of which is full of little notches and teeth.

10. Melted glue having been spread upon both surfaces with a brush, the parts are placed in contact, and firmly pressed together by means of _hand-screws_. Before the screws are applied, the surface of the veneer is covered with a piece of heated board, termed, in this application, a _caul_. One piece of this kind commonly serves a veneer on each side of it at the same time.

11. The mahogany thus attached to the softer wood, is afterwards wrought with the _toothed-plane_, and others of the common kind. It is then sc.r.a.ped with a flat piece of steel, having edges which act upon the surface in the same manner as pieces of broken panes of gla.s.s. The polishing is finished, so far as it is carried at this stage of the process, by the use of sand-paper.

12. The several pieces which compose the frame of the bureau are put together with the joint called _mortice_ and _tenon_; and those which form the four sides of the drawers, with that called _dove-tail_. The bottom is united to the sides on the right and left, and sometimes in front, by the _groove-and-tongue_, and its rear edge is fastened with a few nails. The _bearers_ of the drawers are fastened on by means of nails.

13. The joints are made to fit not only by the accuracy of the work, but by the application of glue previous to the union of the parts; this is especially the case with the mortice and tenon. The back of the bureau is composed of some cheap wood, such as pine or poplar; but the panel at each end is most commonly plain mahogany through its entire thickness.

14. The parts which are to be exposed to view are next to be varnished and polished. The material for the former purpose is called _copal varnish_, because one of the princ.i.p.al ingredients in it is a kind of gum called copal, which is obtained from various parts of South America. This kind of varnish is made by melting the gum with an equal quant.i.ty of linseed-oil and spirits of turpentine or alcohol.

15. To give the work a complete finish, four coats of varnish are successively applied; in addition to these, a particular kind of treatment is used after laying on and drying each coat. After the application of the first coat, the surface is rubbed with a piece of wood of convenient form; after the second, with sand-paper and pulverized pumice-stone; after the third, with pumice-stone again; and after the fourth, with very finely powdered pumice-stone and rotten-stone. A little linseed-oil is next applied, and the whole process is finished by rubbing the surface with the hand charged with flour.

16. Some parts of several pieces of furniture are turned in the lathe; and, in large cities, this part of the work is performed by professed turners. The veneering of certain kinds of work of a cylindrical form is, also, in some cases, a distinct business; but, in places distant from large cities, the whole work is commonly performed by the cabinet-maker himself.

17. Mahogany is brought to market in logs hewn to a square form; and persons who deal in it, commonly purchase it in large quant.i.ties, and cause it to be sawn into pieces of suitable dimensions for sale.

Formerly, and in some cases at present, slabs were sawn into thin pieces for veneering by hand; but, within a few years, a more expeditious method, by the circular saw, has been adopted. In performing the operation by this means, the slab is placed upon its edge, and shoved along against the teeth of the rapidly-revolving saw.

It is kept in the proper position by holding the right side of it firmly against an upright plank, called the _rest_.

18. Mahogany is either _plain_, _mottled_, or _crotched_; nevertheless, the different kinds expressed by these terms are met with in the same tree. The variegated kinds are found at or near the joining of the limbs to the trunk; and these are used almost exclusively for veneering. The plain sort is employed for more common purposes, and in those parts of furniture required to be less splendid in appearance. It may be well to remark, also, that plain mahogany is often veneered, as well as the softer woods. Black walnut, white oak, rose, and several other woods, are likewise used for veneering, although not so much as mahogany. Our native woods will be hereafter more used in this way, since mahogany is becoming scarce.

19. In Europe, particularly in England, the business of the cabinet-maker is commonly united with that of the upholsterer; and this is sometimes the case in the United States. All, however, who make sofas and chairs, intrude enough upon the latter business to cover and stuff them; or they employ a journeyman upholsterer to perform this part of the work.

THE UPHOLSTERER.

1. The upholsterer makes beds, sacking-bottoms, mattresses, cushions, curtains for windows and beds, and cuts out, sews together, and fastens down, carpets. One branch of his business, also, consists in covering or lining and stuffing sofas, and particular kinds of chairs, the frames of which are made by cabinet-makers and fancy chair-makers.

2. Beds are stuffed with the feathers of geese and ducks. The sack which contains them, when in use, is called a _tick_, and the striped stuff of which it is composed, is called _ticking_. The feathers used by the upholsterer, are purchased from the feather-merchants, who in turn procure them from country merchants and pedlers. The dealer in feathers also employs travelling agents to collect them in different parts of the country.

3. Beds and pillows are also made of down obtained from the nests of the eider-duck, which is found in the northern parts of Europe and America, above lat.i.tude 45. Eider-down is worth about two dollars per pound, and five or six times that quant.i.ty is sufficient for a bed of common size.

4. Mattresses are made of curled hair, moss, shavings of ratan, flock, straw, corn-husks, and cat-tail flag. The hair most employed for this purpose grows upon the tails of cattle, and upon the manes and tails of horses. It is purchased, in its natural state, from tanners, by persons who make it a business to prepare it for use. The last process of the preparation consists in twisting it into a kind of rope. These ropes are picked to pieces by the upholsterer, and the hair, in its curled and elastic state, is applied to stuffing mattresses, cushions, chairs, and sofas.

5. Moss is obtained from the Southern states of our Union, where it is found in great abundance, and of a good quality. Flock is made by reducing to a degree of fineness, by machinery, coa.r.s.e tags of wool, pieces of woollen cloth, old stockings, and other woollen offals of little or no value in any other application. Of all the materials for stuffing upholstery, hair is much the best, and, although it costs more in its original purchase, it is much cheaper in the end.

6. In making and putting up window and bed curtains, considerable taste is required to insure success. A knowledge of drawing is particularly useful here, in improving the taste, as well as in exhibiting to customers the prevailing fashions, or any changes which may be proposed. The tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs consist chiefly of ta.s.sels, fringes, and gilded or bra.s.s fixtures.

7. We have not s.p.a.ce for a particular description of the manner in which any of the operations of the upholsterer are performed; nor is this necessary, since the work itself, in almost every specimen of it, affords obvious indications of the manner of its execution. We will merely remark, that a great proportion of it is performed by females.

8. In the first ages of the world, it was the universal practice to sleep upon the skins of beasts, and this is still the custom among the savage nations of the present day. The Greeks and the Romans, in the early part of their history, slept in this manner, and so did the common people of some parts of Germany, even until modern times.

9. The first advancement from the use of skins was the subst.i.tution of rushes, heath, or straw, which was primarily strewed loosely on the ground or floor, and finally confined with ticking; and these and similar materials are still used by the poor in various parts of the world. So late as the close of the thirteenth century, the royal family of England slept on beds made of straw.

10. During the civilized periods of antiquity, the wealthy commonly filled their beds with feathers. After the Romans had become luxurious, they used several kinds of beds, among which were the _lectus cubicularis_, or chamber bed, whereon they slept; the _lectus discubitorius_, or table bed, whereon they ate; and the _lectus lucubratorius_, on which they studied.

11. The Romans adopted the Eastern fashion of reclining at their meals, at the close of the second Punic war, about 200 years before Christ, when Scipio Africa.n.u.s brought some little beds from Carthage, which were thence called _Punicani_. These beds were low, made of wood, covered with leather, and stuffed with hay or straw. Before this time, they sat down to eat on plain wooden benches, in imitation of the heroes of Homer, or after the manner of the Cretans and Lacedaemonians.

12. From the greatest simplicity, the Romans at length carried their supping beds to the most surprising magnificence. The bedsteads were sometimes made of gold or silver, and very commonly of wood, adorned with plates of these metals or with tortoise sh.e.l.l. On the couch was laid a mattress or quilt, stuffed with feathers or wool.

13. Three persons commonly occupied one couch. They lay with the upper part of the body reclined on the left arm, the head a little raised, the back supported by cushions, and the limbs stretched out at full length or a little bent. The feet of the first were placed behind the back of the second, and his feet behind the back of the third.

Reclining at meals was customary in Asia, in the time of our Savior, as is clearly shown in John, xiii., 23 and 25, and this rendered it convenient for Mary to anoint the feet of Jesus, while at the table.

14. The Romans, during the republic, made their tables of a square form, and on three sides of it was placed a couch; but, under the emperors, a long couch of a semicircular form having been introduced, the table was made of a similar shape to conform to it. In either case, one side was left empty, to admit of the approach of the servants.

15. We have no certain evidence that carpets were known in the civilized periods of antiquity. They appear to have originated in Persia, at a time comparatively modern, and to have spread in a gradual manner towards the West. They were unknown in England in the reign of Elizabeth; for it was then the fashion to strew the floor with hay and rushes. Even the presence-chamber of this princess was covered in this manner. The manufacture of carpets was not commenced in England, until the year 1750. They are now extensively manufactured in the United States.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHAIR MAKER.]

THE CHAIR-MAKER.

1. The chair was invented at so early a period, that its origin cannot now be ascertained. It was used by all the civilized nations of antiquity; and some of their patterns for this species of furniture have been revived, with some modifications, in modern times; for example, a stool for sitting at the piano, now called the X, is the lower part of a chair used in the Roman empire near two thousand years ago. The seat and back were stuffed with some soft elastic substance.

2. The seats used by the barbarous conquerors of the Roman empire, hardly deserve the name of chairs, as they commonly consisted of little or nothing more than a stool with three or four legs. Even the great Alfred, who swayed the sceptre of England in the latter part of the ninth century, possessed nothing approaching nearer to a chair than a three-legged stool made of oak timber. This species of seat was at length improved into a chair by the addition of another leg and a back.

3. The next step in the art of chair-making was to cover the seats with cloth, and to stuff them with some kind of wadding. The material of which the frames were made was oak; and for a long period, they were exceedingly heavy and inconvenient. The armed-chair is said to have been contrived by an alderman of Cripplegate. Such chairs, however, were in use among the ancient Greeks and Romans.

4. Our old-fashioned chair, with four upright posts, several horizontal rounds and slats, together with wooden splints or flags for the bottom, is comparatively modern, although it is impossible to state the period of its introduction. Very few of any other kind were used in the United States, until near the beginning of the present century.

5. The Windsor chair seems to have been first used for a rural seat in the grounds about Windsor castle, England; whence its name. It was originally constructed of round wood, with the bark on; but the chair-makers soon began to make them of turned wood, for the common purposes of house-keeping. We cannot learn that any were made in this country before the close of the revolution, in 1783.

6. A great proportion of the chair-maker's stuff is brought to the proper form by means of the lathe; and this machine is used for this purpose in every practicable case; but this part of the work is not performed in the cities, since it is found to be less expensive and more convenient, to purchase the timber turned in the country. Slats for the back, bent to the proper shape, are also obtained from the same source.

7. The Windsor chair is varied in its construction and finish, in some particulars; but, in all cases, it has a seat made of thick plank of cypress, ba.s.s, or some other soft wood. The slats, when employed, are also made of the same wood, or of soft maple. The parts which are turned, are commonly of the wood last mentioned.

8. In constructing chairs from these materials, the workman undertakes several at a time, say from one to two or three dozens. We may suppose, as is frequently the case, that he first cuts up a quant.i.ty of planks to the proper size for the seats, and reduces them to the proposed form and smoothness by means of the drawing-knife, adze, spoke-shaves, and sand-paper. He next cuts the various pieces which are to compose the frame, to the proper length, turns the ends of those which need it, to make the joint, and bores the requisite holes with a _bit_. In putting the parts together, the joints are made to fit very closely, and their union is rendered permanent by means of glue.

9. The chairs are next covered with three coats of paint, and with two coats of copal or some other kind of varnish; and this, for plain work, completes the whole process of the manufacture. But, when they are to be ornamented, gold or copper leaf or bronze is put on before the application of the last coat of varnish. The bronze used by painters, is finely pulverized copper, tin, or zinc.

10. The _ornamenter_ uses paper patterns, which he applies to the surface to be ornamented, to guide him in the execution of his work.

The powder is laid on with a camel's-hair brush, or with a piece of raw cotton. Light and shade are produced by a proper distribution of the powder, or by paint of a dark colour. The bronze is made to adhere by means of _size_, which has been previously laid on.

11. Several other kinds of chairs are, also, made by the common chair-maker; and the frames, or some parts of them, are sawn out of planks with a narrow-bladed saw, which can be easily guided upon the line of any pattern. The princ.i.p.al parts of the frame are commonly put together with the mortice and tenon; and the bottoms are composed of cane, flags, or a peculiar kind of rush. The cane is likewise used in the backs of chairs, especially in those having rockers.

12. The manufacture of mahogany chairs with stuffed seats, sometimes const.i.tutes a distinct branch of business; at other times, it is connected with that of making sofas; and again, with cabinet-making in general. It is generally supposed, that rockers were first applied to chairs in this country, but at what time or by whom, it cannot be determined.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CARVER & GILDER.]

THE CARVER, AND THE GILDER.